17/03/2017 BBC News at One

The White House promises not to repeat an allegation that British

The assurance comes after GCHQ took the unprecedented step of calling

the claims "nonsense" and "utterly ridiculous".

We'll have the latest with our security

The SNP insist there will be a second referendum

on Scotland's independence and that no UK Prime Minister should

The former Chancellor George Osborne has been appointed editor

of the London Evening Standard but says he'll remain an MP.

There's a warning of a funding shortage for schools,

despite record spending by the government.

And Leicester will face Atletico Madrid in the quarter

Coming up in sports at half past on BBC News, it's

Colin Tizzard's Cue Card is one of the favourites on the final

It's rare for Britain's intelligence community to make a public

So the fact that GCHQ felt it had to rebut allegations that it

spied on Donald Trump shows how seriously they took

the comments made by the White House press secretary,

GCHQ said the claims were "nonsense, utterly ridiculous,

And in the last couple of hours, Downing Street says it's been

promised by the White House that the allegations

It is an extraordinary claim, that Donald Trump was bugged by GCHQ on

the orders of Barack Obama, a claim that has led to strenuous denials

from London. It was first tweeted by President Trump who said his phone

had been tapped before his inauguration. He said President

Obama was a bad or sick guy. The intelligence committee said there

was no evidence. The evidence remains the same, we do not have any

evidence that took place. We have cleared that up, we have seen no

evidence of that. Where is the president getting the information

about being bugged by GCHQ? Apparently from Fox knows. Sources

have told Fox news that President Obama could have done probably dead

used any foreign intelligence service to get this information. --

probably did. These are merely pointing out that I think there is

widespread reporting that throughout the election there was surveillance

than on a variety of people. If the White House reporters were sceptical

GCHQ was even less impressed. The agency rarely comment on anything

but today said... Do you believe the GCHQ spokesman or

the President Trump spokesman? Which one you choose to believe bullet --

depends on your political views on what is going on in the United

States. Downing Street said it had told the Americans that the GCHQ

claim was ridiculous and said the White House had given assurances the

claim would not be repeated. Our security correspondent,

Frank Gardner, is with me. Is this damaging? Yes. Number 10 and

the White House will be making efforts to put a gloss over it and

draw a line of it and see it is finished but it is a pretty poor

state of affairs when Britain has to publicly contradict and strongly

contradict its closest ally to say that there is no credence in the

senior White House spokesman statement. That is not a good state

of affairs at all. This comes on the back of a very frosty relationship

between President Trump's administration and his intelligence

community. Britain is part of the intelligence sharing community of

Britain, the US, Canada and New Zealand. They are not allowed to spy

on each other. US intelligence bugged Angela Merkel's phone and

almost out the other leaders as well be considered to be friendly. I can

understand how these conspiracy theories arise but in this case

there was no evidence and it is very rare for DCH it and see something

like this publicly. A meeting was held in Downing Street earlier this

week about how to respond and when Sean Spicer continued to repeat his

allegations on Thursday there very strongly worded statement came out

last night. The deputy leader of

the Scottish National Party has insisted there will be

a second referendum Opening the party's spring

conference in Aberdeen, Angus Robertson said

the Prime Minister was "panicking" when she tried

to draw a line under the SNP's proposed timetable

for another referendum. Theresa May has been

speaking in the last hour at the Conservative Spring Conference

in Cardiff and reiterated that independence would be "bad

for Scotland, bad for the UK Our political correspondent

Iain Watson has the latest. At the SNP Conference it is hardly

surprising the focus is on a second referendum on Scottish independence.

Legally it is Westminster that take the decision. Here it feels like the

campaign is already under way. Members are delighted at the call

for another vote within two years but pro-union campaigners do not

want it to happen at all. The SNP deputy leader had a message for them

and the Prime Minister. People of this country will have their choice.

They will not be denied their say. The stirrings of a standing ovation

spurred him on. No UK Prime Minister should dare to stand in the way of

Scotland's democracy. The SNP spring Conference in Aberdeen was supposed

to be discussing a range of issues. Health service, education, skills

and training, these will still be debated but there is only one item

on this agenda and that of the arguments in favour of a second

Scottish independence referendum. Next week Nicola Sturgeon will get

the backing of the Scottish Parliament for a referendum and she

will invite rodders abroad by arguing she is standing up not just

for Scotland but would conceive. The Prime Minister has not put herself

in opposition to me or independence, she is within her rights to argue

against independence, she is putting herself in opposition to the

democratic will of the Scottish parliament. That is not a

sustainable position. Judy and card of the Prime Minister made the case

for the UK remaining United, Enon too subtle reference to the

referendum campaign when it comes. It is clear that using Brexit as the

pretext to engineer a second independence referendum has been the

SNP's sole objective ever since last June. It would be bad for Scotland,

bad for the United Kingdom and bad for us all. The coming negotiations

with the EU will be vital for everyone in the United Kingdom. So

far the arguments have not been so much about independence, more about

the timing of an independence referendum but it is not a trivial

dispute. In politics as in comedy timing can often be crucial to

success. In a moment, we'll be speaking

to our correspondent in Westminster, but first let's speak to Iain who's

in Aberdeen. Very strong language from Angus

Robertson. This is the SNP not wanting to back down. No. Very

uncompromising language from the SNP's deputy leader. Next week the

Scottish parliament will vote back in favour of an independence

referendum. Labour, the Lib Dems at the Conservatives will oppose it but

with the help of the Scottish Greens Nicola Sturgeon will win that fog.

The SNP is thinking if the timing is before Brexit then the government at

Westminster will be too tied up in negotiations to run what they see

other projects they are campaign. Secondly they think of it happens

before Brexit then around 200,000 EU nationals who live in Scotland are

more likely to back independence than last time in 2014. For those

reasons and others to reason me is determined not to back down so

although the SNP sounded uncompromising she made it clear

that a referendum before Brexit would be bad for Britain. Some

questions over whether she would allow it to happen before the next

general election in 2020. The SNP failed by keeping the focus on the

independence referendum at the conference they cannot really lose

because they can see Westminster has been in transit and if they refuse

our timescale and the whole -- the will be heard as if the back

independence this time. Important local elections happening in

Scotland. A message on a second independence referendum fires up the

activists. Opening of the do well in those elections that will put

further pressure onto these are me -- teddies are me. The Prime

Minister not going to back down. The key question for the Prime Minister

is if she is not keen to old it now then when? Nicola Sturgeon tried to

put the ball back in her court asking her to set the times but the

Prime Minister did not shine any new light on it and added to the battle

lines the Prime Minister attacking the SNP for using Brexit as a

pretext to get a second referendum in Scotland and the SNP saying they

are not having any compromises forthcoming from the government.

Theresa May will decide if and when I referendum is held. The question

will be whether Scottish voters are deciding on what any Brexit deal is

at the time or whether they will be influenced by how the process as to

whether to give them this referendum has been handled.

The former Chancellor George Osborne has been appointed editor

of the London Evening Standard newspaper.

He's due to edit the paper four days a week from May and says he intends

to continue as the MP for Tatton in Cheshire.

The newspaper's owner said George Osborne had been chosen

because his "socially liberal and economically pragmatic" views

Here's our political correspondent, Ben Wright.

He is used to being featured on the front pages, no George Osborne will

decide what is on one, becoming editor of a major newspaper less

than a year after being sacked from the cabinet following the EU

referendum. I will speak for London and Londoners through this paper as

its editor and we will judge whatever the government does,

whatever the mayor does, I guess whether it is good for London or not

and if it is not then we will seize all and we will not be afraid to do

that. If it is good for London we will back it. He has spent his

entire life in politics, six years running the Treasury after building

his career within the Tory party as an MP and adviser to previous

leaders but before politics he wanted to be journalist. He did not

get a break or a job and will jump straight into the editor's hair of

the Evening Standard. The deeper's owner said he was pleased with the

appointment. We hope the fact we have a trade deficit under very

important financial centre will count in our favour. The government

has chosen not to make the economy the priority in this negotiation.

His new job will give him a platform to trumpet London's interests and

the city as the government begins Brexit. I was shocked. I thought it

was fake news. Why is he doing it? Not for the money. I can only

conclude he wants to build the Evening Standard into an alternative

power base to Theresa May and in the event of Brexit going pear shaped he

will use this power base to launch the attack. The mayor of London

treated his congratulations. Two powerful voices shaping the

capital's future. George Osborne has been busy in rising -- advising a

major investment firm. A juggling of jobs perhaps without precedent in

Parliament. He may have left parliament but this appointment puts

him back on the front line of politics.

Our Media Editor, Amol Rajan, is outside the Standard's

It is hard to overstate what a surprise this was. Yes. One of the

most shocking appointments of an editor in Fleet Street's living

memory. The question is what George Osborne is in it for. He is someone

of limited journalistic experience although he has immense political

ambition and it will be interesting to see what his relationship with

the Tory government is like. Last year he was unceremoniously

dismissed by Theresa May. I think he wants to be grenade back at the

government and make sure he is still a political force in the land. The

question is how he reconciles this with his job as an MP. I was an

editor in that building for three years and it is a full-time job. I

spent 100 hours a week working very hard. It is managing a team,

commercial obligations as well. How to reconcile that with his work for

the world's against asset manager, four days a month, and his job as an

MP, remains to be seen. If I worked a bit, I would think he would be

editor of the Evening Standard long after he is MP for Tatton.

Some schools in England may be receiving more Government money,

but research out today suggests it will be all but cancelled out

by increases in the cost of pay, pensions and national insurance

The Government says funding for all schools

But according to the Education Policy Institute, budget pressures

will hit every school and particularly those

Here's our education correspondent, Gillian Hargreaves.

This primary School in Southwark in south London has been well funded

compared to other schools, something the Government is determined to

change to make the system fairer. It faces a shortfall of 14% in its

budget between now and 2020. It is the additional stuff we have in

school, the additional Apogee and at ease for children, sports coaches,

the services we bring in to support learning such as speech therapists,

art therapists, sports coaches, we would have to look at cutting those

things in the first instance. Ultimately we are looking at job

cuts, however. The Government says it is spending ?40 billion on

schools in England this year, according to the Education Policy

Institute, even with a fairer funding formula all schools will buy

better have less money. The real terms loss will be on average

?74,000, rising to ?291,000 for secondary schools, equating to two

teachers for every primary school and six for secondary schools.

It is a very tricky time for the Government because they are

introducing this long-awaited reform, yet it comes against a

backdrop of much wider funding pressures for schools. A very

simplistic but perhaps not realistic solution would be to put more money

in the pot. The Government says it recognises

the pressure schools face and will help them make savings that should

not impact on the quality of teaching. Gillian Hargreaves, BBC

News. Claims that British intelligence

spied on Donald Trump The White House says it

won't repeat the allegation. Coming up, I am at Cheltenham where

it is one of the highlights of the racing calendar, the Gold Cup.

Coming up in the sport later in the hour on BBC News,

the last British side in the Champions League,

Leicester City, has been drawn to face Atletico Madrid in the

Human rights groups have described two refugee camps being built

in Hungary as a flagrant violation of international law.

The camps are made out of converted shipping containers,

and anyone entering Hungary will be kept there - without a time

limit, and with severe restrictions on their movement.

Hungary's Prime Minister say the country is under siege.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees have entered in the last two years,

but only a few hundred have been giving permission to stay.

Our correspondent James Reynolds sent us this report.

When Hungary says it is taking tough action to stop migration,

It is holding these migrants at a detention centre

We are allowed to speak to them from the street.

We are not terrorists, we are not criminals.

But Hungary sees no reason to back down.

This month, the Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, took charge of a new

A new law now gives the government even more power

Hungary plans to hold them all in these containers

it is setting up next to the border with Serbia.

"These are civilised places to live in," the contractor says.

"European workers certainly find them acceptable."

Hungary says that the migrants to be held in these containers would be

free to leave at any time, so long as they head in just

They will be free to walk just a few metres down

here and they would cross back into Serbia, away from the EU,

These young migrants are stuck on the Serbian side.

The rest of the European Union may publicly criticise

the actions of Hungary but, quietly, Europe may put

up with anything that keeps migrants back.

James Reynolds, BBC News, on the Hungary/Serbia border.

A court in Nottingham has been told that a breast surgeon allegedly

carried out unnecessary surgery on nine women and a man.

Ian Paterson is charged with 20 counts of wounding with intent.

This morning the jury heard from a woman who said she'd been

told she was at high risk of cancer, when actually she was at no more

Our health correspondent, Dominic Hughes, is outside

What was the court told today? This morning the court heard from

France's perks, who was referred to breast cancer surgeon Ian Paterson

in the 1990s, she had a history of breast cancer in her family, her

mother and sister both died from the disease. Over a decade she underwent

a number of procedures under the care of Ian Paterson, but after a

lump was found in her breast between 2007 in 2008 she underwent two

further procedures and a mastectomy. She told the court it was not

something she wanted, she was very scared and frightened but the way it

was discussed, she said, she did not want to end up with full-blown

breast cancer. Under cross-examination she told the court

she had considered a double mastectomy but changed her mind, but

it turns out she was only at moderate risk of breast cancer

despite her family history. I was conned that I was high risk by Mr

Paterson and my family was conned, she told the court. Another patient,

John Ingram, underwent a double mistake to after being told he was

on the road to cancer by Ian Paterson. It left him with intense

pain that he likened to having a cigarette placed over his skin. It

is the prosecution case that Ian Paterson misrepresented pathology

lab reports to his patients and exaggerated the risk of cancer to

his patients, carrying out operations that were simply not

necessary. Ian Paterson denies 20 courts of wood touch 20 counts of

wounding with intent and the case continues. Thank you.

Now, I wonder whether you've been able to lip read what I've been

But, researchers in Oxford have developed a machine for people

who are hard of hearing that can lip-read more accurately

And they've developed the technology by watching news

presenters here at the BBC - as our technology correspondent Rory

At the Action for Hearing Loss charity, Edward is trying

to have a conversation with a colleague.

With lots of noise coming into the office from the street,

his lip-reading skills come in useful.

It can be very hard as well because sometimes some words can

sound the same or could be lip-read the same, and so it's

all about getting into context and seeing what people actually talk

But in Oxford, research is under way to teach computers

It's involved training an artificial intelligence system using thousands

So the box around the lips is the region that the AI system is seeing.

Joon Son Chung, whose project this is, shares Edward's view

So lip-reading is a very difficult problem because there are visual

For example pat, bat and mat are visually identical.

By endlessly watching clips of Breakfast, Newsnight and other

BBC News programmes, the computer teaches

What the system does is learn things that occur together.

So in this case they're the mouth shapes and the characters,

and what the likely upcoming characters are given

Let's try it with some words it already understands.

The Prime Minister is at a European Union summit.

Now, the system has heard those words in that context before

But to get better, it will have to chew through a lot more data.

There's a long way to go but the hearing loss charity

This would help people with when they're watching

subtitles on television, this will help people when they're

out and about in very noisy environments and it's by no means

technology that will replace a professional lip-reader.

It's something that would very much support professional lip-readers

to improve the accuracy of the work that they do.

Right now the technology only works on full sentences in recorded clips.

The next stage is to make it work live.

But first the computer is going to be watching

So, Leicester will take on the might of Atletico Madrid in the quarter

Let's speak to our sports correspondent, Joe Wilson.

Is this who they would want to face? A fuel-air stuff fans would have

loved to have Barcelona and real Madrid for the glamour, but Atletico

are at the recent runners up twice in the Champions League so they are

pretty glamorous -- a few Leicester fans would have loved to have. All

you wanted to talk about with Leicester, the Uefa official, your

beautiful story. Remember last year the way that Leicester shook up the

orthodoxy in the Premier League, I think they have done a similar thing

with European football and Uefa realise it is important, it is

always the same teams in the latter stages but gets boring as the

sceptical -- as a spec -- as a spectacle. Can they win? Even if

they lose the first leg they can get it back at home. Leicester do not

play like we are Madrid or Barcelona, they had to bring energy

and intensity that teams like Atletico will not experiences.

Crucially in the last few weeks, the Leicester players have remained,

that is what they need to do with they will win. Thank you, Joel

Wilson. The England rugby team is due

to arrive in Dublin this afternoon for its crucial

match against Ireland. Even though England has already

won the Six Nations, a win against Ireland would mean

historic back-to-back grand slams, and 19 consecutive

international victories - About 60,000 people are expected

to be there to watch jump racing's showpiece event -

14 horses racing three and a quarter And as befits St Patrick's Day,

the Irish will be strong contenders. Our sports correspondent, Andy

Swiss, is at Cheltenham racecourse. It is a chilli day in Cheltenham.

The atmosphere is warming up nicely. Just a couple of hours to go until

the big race. Last week it was won by Don Cossack, who has since

retired. One thing is certain, we will have a new name on the Gold

Cup. History is carved into Cheltenham.

For the fans, this is the day when riders and horses can become

legends. Who will be next to join the Golden greats? Among the early

arrivals today, the sentimental favourite, Cue Card, at the grand

old age of 11, trying to become the oldest winner since 1969. Trained in

Dorset by former dairy farmer Colin Tizzard, the horse fell last year

but has picked itself the band is ready for redemption. He's a happy

horse, he is not ready for anything else yet, here's a racehorse and he

loves it, I really believe he has as good a chance as he will ever have.

This is a race full of possibilities. Lizzie Kelly becomes

the first woman to ride in the World Cup for 33 years, she rides on

outsider Tea For Two. In a still male dominated profession she knows

the significance. I think more than any other girl

reference I have really... I really get this one. Writing in the Gold

Cup is massive because it is such an elite race. It is reserved for the

best horses, best trainers and best jockeys. On Saint Patrick's Day,

there could be another excuse for Irish celebrations. Many will be

cheering on Ruby Walsh, yesterday the jockey won four races with

trainer Willie Mullins. Once again, Walsh and Molins! Walsh writes

Djakadam, twice runner-up, it might be third time lucky.

Djakadam currently marginal favourite with the bookies, followed

by Cue Card in a festival dominated by Irish horses. Could we have

another Irish winner? We will find out at 3:30pm. Thank you, Andy

Smith at Cheltenham. Dramatic pictures have emerged

of the moment a woman managed You can just see her -

covered in mud, in the middle of the picture - dragging

herself to safety. Heavy rains triggered

the slides, which have killed Let's cut -- let's catch up with the

weather prospects here. Torrential rain over there, Darren?

It only happens once every ten or 15 years. We have nothing like as bad

as that but it is certainly changing. Earlier in the week we had

much quieter, warmer weather but we are looking to the Atlantic and the

cloud is billowing our way, signalling a change, looking more

threatening and bringing rain to western parts of the UK. As we have

seen in Glasgow already. Further south in Hampshire, Basingstoke, the

cloud has been thinner so we have had brighter skies and sunshine but

it will become more milky through the afternoon. Further north in

Glasgow, a colourful picture from our Weather Watcher but a wet scene.

We will continue to get rain. That is the bigger picture across the UK.

Into Scotland, not just rain but snow over the mountains in the north

where we are putting into much colder air. It will feel quite

chilly under the rain in the West of Scotland. Great for Northern

Ireland, especially in the north. Wet in the north-west of England,

largely dry on the other side of the Pennines, but gusty winds

developing. West Wales is turning wetter and wetter, especially in the

hills. Much of southern and eastern England and the Midlands is likely

to be dry but increasing clouds, temperatures 12 or 13 at best.

We may get rain towards the south-east this evening but it is

mainly over the western hills. The little turn dry in Scotland later in

the night. Here in the north of Scotland, cold for each -- cold

enough for a touch of frost but otherwise mild.

For the weekend, westerly winds continue, strengthening in

particular on Sunday. Some rain at times across the west of the UK, dry

and brighter in the east. On Saturday we might have early

sunshine in the east of England and eastern Scotland, the westerly winds

are not as strong, blowing rain into the south-west for time. Turning

wetter in Northern Ireland, rain moving across the Irish Sea to

western England and Scotland. Still quite mild towards the south-east,

14 or 15 degrees. For the rugby, a big day on Saturday and pretty much

in the same boat, cloudy skies, breezy, dry, strongest winds later

in the day down the way in Dublin. The winds continue to strengthen

overnight and it will be windy on Sunday, rain in Scotland and

Northern Ireland sinking into northern part of England and Wales.

The south-east and East Anglia are still dry and quite mild as well.

The milder air does not last into next week, it is pushed away and we

get cooler, showery weather moving from the north-west.

A reminder of our main story this lunchtime...

Claims that British intelligence by Don Donald Trump have been described

by GCHQ is nonsense. The White House says it will not repeat the

says it will not repeat the allegation.

That's all from the BBC News at One - so it's goodbye from me,

and on BBC one we now join the BBC's news teams where you are.