:00:00. > :00:12.European elections. There is a first look at the papers on the news
:00:13. > :00:16.Good evening and welcome to the programme. Labour has doubled the
:00:17. > :00:19.number of MEPs it has in the capital, winning half of the
:00:20. > :00:22.region's eight seats in the European elections. Labour topped the poll,
:00:23. > :00:25.taking one seat from the Conservatives, leaving them with
:00:26. > :00:29.two. It was a bad night for the Liberal Democrats, they've been left
:00:30. > :00:33.with no London MEPs. And there was no change for UKIP and the Green
:00:34. > :00:42.Party, they kept one seat each. Our political correspondent, Karl Mercer
:00:43. > :00:47.reports. It was a long night at City Hall, as London waited to find out
:00:48. > :00:52.how the European votes had gone. Held up by a delayed count in Tower
:00:53. > :00:56.Hamlets, London's politicians and their supporters simply had to
:00:57. > :01:00.wait... And wait... And weight. Some more anxiously than others, until
:01:01. > :01:05.the results were finally announced at around 3am. I declare that the
:01:06. > :01:09.number of votes cast for each party and each individual candidate are as
:01:10. > :01:12.follows. It was bad news for the Liberal Democrats, battered in the
:01:13. > :01:17.local elections, the news on the European poll was no better. Their
:01:18. > :01:23.only MEP lost her seat after 15 years. I think it's a great shame
:01:24. > :01:30.that Europe's premier city does not have an MEP now from the
:01:31. > :01:34.pro`European party, the Liberal Democrats. The local elections were
:01:35. > :01:37.just as bad for the Lib Dems. There are now 18 councils in the capital
:01:38. > :01:41.that have no Lib Dem councillors, and half a dozen that have just one.
:01:42. > :01:47.And the party controls just one London town Hall, in Sutton. As a
:01:48. > :01:50.party, we have been here before. The first time I was elected, the party
:01:51. > :02:01.was up 3% in the national opinion polls. We are resilient and will
:02:02. > :02:03.build on what we've got my borough, the London Borough of Sutton, we
:02:04. > :02:05.have an overwhelming majority on the council, perhaps other boroughs can
:02:06. > :02:10.learn from what we've achieved. We can fight back. These results follow
:02:11. > :02:15.up a disastrous performance in the race to be London's mayor in 2012.
:02:16. > :02:19.Back then, the Lib Dem candidate, former policeman Brian paddock, got
:02:20. > :02:23.less than 5% in the vote and lost his deposit. They are difficult
:02:24. > :02:30.times for the party. It means not only are they in a week but `` weak
:02:31. > :02:33.position to affect the boroughs in Islington or Southwark, where they
:02:34. > :02:37.were powerful until recently, but they will have lost a great deal of
:02:38. > :02:41.their activist base. That in turn makes it hard to win general
:02:42. > :02:47.election seats next year, because councillors are closely related to
:02:48. > :02:51.having a decent activist base. Once again, the winners in London's poll
:02:52. > :02:54.were the Labour Party, following up on their strong showing in the
:02:55. > :03:00.borough elections. They won four seats, up from two last time. We are
:03:01. > :03:03.proud of the result. It is not an exceptional result in London, it's
:03:04. > :03:06.what we are about in the Labour Party and I'm proud of what we have
:03:07. > :03:11.achieved to date, as an internationalist, pro`European set
:03:12. > :03:15.of candidates. UKIP had hoped to build on the one MEP they had
:03:16. > :03:20.elected in 2009, but it wasn't to be, as London once again bucked the
:03:21. > :03:23.national trend. At their sole win on the night was incompetence mood.
:03:24. > :03:27.Government the one thing I hope is that non`averse to a full turn that
:03:28. > :03:31.Britain leads the European Union and within five years all of us are made
:03:32. > :03:36.redundant. The Conservatives lost one of their MEPs, down from three
:03:37. > :03:41.to two in London. Looking at the overall results, the year to go
:03:42. > :03:46.before the general election, we are neck and neck with Labour. Overall,
:03:47. > :03:49.it's a pretty good result. The Greens had been worried about their
:03:50. > :03:54.sole MEP, but with the UKIP threat not as great in London, she also
:03:55. > :04:01.held on for another five years. I generally thought tonight was be ``
:04:02. > :04:05.is going to be a close one. Thank you, London voters. A bit of
:04:06. > :04:09.something for everyone in London, with most claiming a victory of
:04:10. > :04:12.sorts. Apart from the Lib Dems. The Liberal Democrats did manage to
:04:13. > :04:16.retain their MEP in the South East region, which includes Surrey,
:04:17. > :04:20.Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. This was despite a strong showing from
:04:21. > :04:23.UKIP, where Nigel Farage was one of four MEPs elected. UKIP also did
:04:24. > :04:27.well in the eastern region, which includes Hertfordshire and Essex,
:04:28. > :04:31.winning three seats. The Greens will be disappointed as they just missed
:04:32. > :04:35.out on a seat here, even though they polled over 8% of the vote. One
:04:36. > :04:38.borough has still not declared its final result from last Thursday's
:04:39. > :04:41.local election. The count in Tower Hamlets was suspended at 3am this
:04:42. > :04:45.morning and won't start again until tomorrow. The delay's been caused
:04:46. > :04:52.because ballot papers for the Bromley South ward have to be
:04:53. > :04:55.recounted. The Thames Tunnel was once known as the eighth wonder of
:04:56. > :04:58.the world. In Victorian times, hundreds of thousands of Londoners
:04:59. > :05:02.flocked to see it, amazed at how they were able to walk beneath the
:05:03. > :05:05.river. These days it's no longer a tourist attraction, in fact the
:05:06. > :05:16.public rarely get to see it. Charlotte Franks reports. Welcome to
:05:17. > :05:20.the eighth wonder of the world. This is the first tunnel under a river
:05:21. > :05:24.anywhere in the world. This dark underground passage is the
:05:25. > :05:29.birthplace of the Tube system. It's the Thames Tunnel, which runs
:05:30. > :05:33.between Rotherhithe and Wapping. It was designed and engineered by Marc
:05:34. > :05:39.Brunel and his son, Isambard Brunel. It opened in 1843 with the screams
:05:40. > :05:43.of excitement and delight of 50,000 visitors. Built originally for horse
:05:44. > :05:47.and cart is, the great tunnel was to be an alternative to the already
:05:48. > :05:52.overcrowded River Thames. But access to the tunnel was too difficult for
:05:53. > :05:58.anything other than pedestrians, so it soon became more than just a
:05:59. > :06:03.means of getting from a to B. This is the world's first underwater
:06:04. > :06:08.banquet hall, the world's first underwater shopping arcade and the
:06:09. > :06:12.world's first and water programme. People caught on to the fact they
:06:13. > :06:16.could have a steady stream of customers and used the structure of
:06:17. > :06:19.the tunnel to their advantage. These archways were shops, selling
:06:20. > :06:23.hundreds of items to people walking north and south. What they bought
:06:24. > :06:28.were trophies. After all, you needed proof that you'd ventured beneath
:06:29. > :06:32.the River Thames. The tunnel was a great feat of engineering. No one
:06:33. > :06:35.believed it could be made. It was the first shield driven tunnel
:06:36. > :06:40.construction in the world, but the process was a risky one. Brunel came
:06:41. > :06:45.up with the idea of a tunnelling shield, but it had workers in little
:06:46. > :06:49.cells of about 21 feet 6'. They would do two`hour and have to come
:06:50. > :06:54.up because the air and gas was so much they were almost collapsing.
:06:55. > :06:58.The tunnel is now used London overground trains, carrying over 1
:06:59. > :07:00.million passengers every day. A structure that people once thought
:07:01. > :07:06.impossible has left a very important legacy. Intriguing stuff!
:07:07. > :07:11.A quick look at the weather. Tonight there's a chance of heavy showers
:07:12. > :07:14.before clear skies in the morning. Tomorrow will be mostly bright and
:07:15. > :07:18.dry, with a risk of showers in the afternoon. Top temperature of 18
:07:19. > :07:21.Celsius. That's it for tonight. We're back with the latest news,
:07:22. > :07:23.travel and weather every half hour from 6.30am tomorrow morning. For
:07:24. > :07:42.now, have a very good night. The month of May is often thought of
:07:43. > :07:47.as the transition from Spring into summer. It can have a variety of
:07:48. > :07:51.weather. We've seen just that in just one day. In fact, we had a
:07:52. > :07:54.window of sunshine, it was quite pleasant, but at the same time we
:07:55. > :07:57.had this speed of cloud and rain moving up from the channel to the
:07:58. > :08:02.North of England and sharp showers to the north and west. If you
:08:03. > :08:11.managed to dodge them and keep the sunshine, you have the warmth. Highs
:08:12. > :08:13.of 18 degrees. Underneath the cloud and rain, a disappointing 11
:08:14. > :08:16.degrees. Very cool for this time of year. We will continue to see the
:08:17. > :08:17.showers fading to the west, but temperatures are pretty uniform
:08:18. > :08:19.through the night.