10/11/2015 BBC News at Six

David Cameron outlines his reform agenda.

He sends a letter listing Britain's key demands,

including curbs on EU migrant benefits.

What I am asking for is what is needed to fix the problems

in Britain's relationship with the European Union.

who say the Prime Minister is not being tough enough.

Also tonight, Vladimir Putin summons his top sporting officials

as Russia hits back over doping allegations.

The investigation into Northern Ireland's Bloody Sunday killings,

a former British soldier is arrested.

Steel workers march through Scunthorpe -

we hear how generations depend on jobs in the industry.

Dame Maggie Smith talks about the roles that have made her famous.

I mean, now I am stuck with being, you know, a mean old cow!

insufficient staff and low performance, the verdict of a review

into police's handling of phone calls from the public.

And former Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael admits

trying to mislead an investigation into that leaked memo.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News At Six.

David Cameron has outlined the reforms he'll be looking for

in negotiations over Britain's relationship with the EU.

In a letter to EU leaders, the Prime Minister has included

four demands, including curbs on benefits for migrants.

That's already proving controversial among some countries.

And here, some of the Prime Minister's own backbenchers

Our deputy political editor, James Landale, has our first report.

Today, a note with a Westminster postmark was sent to Brussels,

the relationship between Britain and the European Union.

In his letter, he set out for the first time, in some detail,

how he wants to reform the EU before a referendum.

Today I'm writing to the president of the European Council,

setting out how I want to address the concerns of the British people.

This is perhaps the most important decision that

the British people will have to take at the ballot box in our lifetimes.

And this is what he wants - binding principles to protect

countries outside the euro from decisions made within the euro,

greater competitiveness, including a new target to cut red tape,

and a legally binding exemption from the EU's commitment

to ever closer union, and greater powers for national parliaments.

And, crucially, he is also demanding benefit curbs for EU migrants,

claiming 40% of those coming are on welfare - a figure some question.

So we have proposed that people coming to Britain from the EU

must live here and contribute for four years

before they qualify for in-work benefits or social housing,

and that we should end the practice of sending benefit overseas.

Now, I understand how difficult some of these welfare issues are

and I'm open to different ways of dealing with this issue.

Note that last phrase, which gives the Prime Minister some flexibility.

You say this is not mission impossible,

but isn't that the point - it's actually mission quite possible,

and that it's not the fundamental reform that you once promised?

This is challenging, this is substantial,

it is going to be difficult to achieve,

and if we do achieve it, it'll make a real difference.

If there's a deal, he promised to campaign

But if not, he wouldn't rule out campaigning to leave -

a decision he, said, that would be final.

If we vote to leave, then we will leave.

There will not be another renegotiation

And so the real negotiations with other EU leaders start now

The referendum campaign, of course, has already begun.

I think it's a really ambitious reform programme,

but I think there are lots of things that other EU countries will agree

with, so I think the Prime Minister is right to push for these four

What we know is that David Cameron isn't taking back control,

he's not dealing with the cost of Brussels,

and he's not backing any of this up with treaty change,

And as for the Prime Minister's backbenchers,

Is that it?! Is that the sum total

of the Government's position in this renegotiation?

The renegotiation amounts to no more than tinkering around the edges.

This is pretty thin gruel, much less than people had come to expect.

How is he going to be able to sell this pig in a poke?

Today was all about the Prime Minister clearing his throat

and clearing the decks ahead of a tough negotiation.

Officials admit he probably won't get everything,

but he will get something, and the question is whether that

something will be enough to convince people to vote to stay in the EU.

For now, Britain's demands have been sent and received.

What matters is what comes back in the post.

James Landale, BBC News, Westminster.

Perhaps the most controversial of Mr Cameron's demands for reform

involve curbing EU migrants' access to in-work benefits,

According to Downing Street, around 40% of EU migrants

claim these benefits in their first four years in the country.

Our economics editor, Robert Peston, has been looking at the figures.

And a Polish deli, in most high street and markets now, this one is

in Leeds. One manifestation of what is exercising our Prime Minister, a

British workforce swelled by EU migrants, especially from Eastern

Europe. So is David Cameron in tune with us? It is a good thing, but

they should not join the benefits straightaway. We field restrictions

should be in place for the amount of people arriving. It is not fair on

the British people who cannot get jobs. So what do we know about why

migrants are coming here? EU migrants represent 6% of the working

population but only 2% of welfare benefits claimants. That suggests

that when they arrive from places like Poland and Romania to coach

stations like this one in Victoria, they are not coming to sit on their

bottoms and claim. But if we look at working tax credits and child tax

credits, EU migrants represent around 10% of those. That shouldn't

really be a surprise, because the evidence suggests they can here to

work and they have to be on relatively low pay. The march here

migrants pushed too much pressure on scarce public services, says the

Prime Minister, so what to do about it? We need action that gives

greater control of migration from the EU. As I have said previously,

we can do this by reducing the draw that our welfare system can exert

across Europe. And to those who say this will not make a difference, I

say look at the figures. So the figures David Cameron is citing

where that around 40% of all recent European migrants are supported in

some way by the UK benefits system, with each family claiming on average

?6,000 in tax credits and other in-work benefits. Does it stack up?

Well, they seem to be in contradiction to many of the figures

which are conducted by academics, including ourselves, and those

figures are far lower. And another thing. The evidence suggests that

migration is on the whole a good thing for the British economy. The

Office for Budget Responsibility says that lower migration would mean

we would have to have higher taxes or lower public spending, migrants

make a net contribution to the public finances over the long term.

So in a corner of West London favoured by migrants, what do they

think of Mr Cameron's plan? It is right, because it is not a place

that you can just claim benefits. I don't come to this country to take

the benefits, I can here looking for a job. It doesn't make sense for me,

if you are from abroad and you never contribute any taxes or national

insurance contributions, it doesn't make any sense why you should get

the money. Are the people already here, cutting the UK subsidy for

migrants may seem fair, but fairness and national prosperity are not the

same thing. Robert Peston, BBC News. And our Europe editor, Katya Adler,

is in Brussels. Early days, but how is this going

down there? I can tell you what there was not much in Europe today,

and that is surprise, because the four areas of reform outlined by the

Prime Minister today were already familiar. Most important for Downing

Street, the reaction from Germany, and Angela Merkel promised again

today to do what she could to help David Cameron, as long, she said, as

his reforms were compatible with EU rules. So no problem trying to

exempt the UK from ever closer union, for protecting countries that

do not use the euro currency, or for making the EU more competitive. But

when it comes to curbing EU migration, that is another story,

and that has come under attack. But this is just the beginning of the

horse trading, and there is an awareness here in Brussels and

across Europe that without Britain and the EU would be poorer

economically, militarily and politically as well. And Europhiles

also worried that on the back of the current migration crisis and the

ongoing Euro crisis, that Brexit could be the nail in the coffin of

the European Union as a whole. Many thanks, Katya Adler.

The World Anti-Doping Agency has suspended Russia's drug-testing

laboratory in Moscow as one of the biggest sporting scandals deepens.

But the Kremlin says the findings in yesterday's report

concerning some of its athletes are groundless.

Our sports editor, Dan Roan, reports on the crisis in world athletics.

Sport had never heard anything quite like it. Yesterday's damning report

into state run cheating laid bare the worst doping scandal in

history. Russia faces an unprecedented ban from next year's

real Olympics and the head of athletics in the UK says it is time

to get tough. I don't really care what Russia does if it is

suspended, apart from cleaning itself up. So point number one,

should it be suspended? Yes, until it can prove it is compliant. If it

refuses to do that, and some of the signs of a night were not

encouraging, well, whatever the consequences are, let's take them.

Political tensions are rising, Vladimir Putin is meeting with the

country's sports chiefs tomorrow, but his spokesman has done dismissed

the accusations as an founded. This sporting superpower will discover

its punishment at the end of the week, but the lab at the heart of

the scandal had its accreditation suspended today.

TRANSLATION: I believe that problem is obviously exist, Russia is on the

path to clear its name and change. Why is it that sports seems so

vulnerable to corruption? How is it that journalists are left to uncover

scandals such as this, rather than the authorities? And how one earth

can athletics recover its battered reputation? For these British

athletes at Lea Valley today, it was training as usual, but at a time

when sport is under scrutiny like never before, these are worrying

times. Hopefully it is fully investigated, but for those athletes

who are competing clean, and there is a lot of athletes competing

cleanly, I would not want the public to think that everyone is cheating

or everyone who wins must be cheating, that is definitely not the

case. For eight years he was deputy to the man he replaced this year,

Lamine Diack, now under investigation that he took bribes to

cover up doping, tonight suspended by the International Olympic

Committee. That has led to questions over exactly what Sebastian Coe new

and if he is the man to steer the sport through its current crisis. We

are looking for special measures not to have to go through committees and

commissions. He has to grasp the nest than say, you have to do

something very fast here. The fear now is that the cheating may extend

well beyond Russian athletes, with more damaging revelations to come.

Sport left wondering what it can believe in. Dan Roan, BBC News.

Police in Northern Ireland say a former British soldier

has been arrested on suspicion of murdering

three civil-rights demonstrators during the events of Bloody Sunday.

It's the first arrest made since a fresh investigation

into the killings was announced three years ago.

13 people were killed when British paratroopers

opened fire on a civil-rights march through Londonderry in 1972.

Our Ireland correspondent Chris Buckler is in Londonderry.

Chris, just how significant a development is this? George, I think

it is significant because it is the first arrest of a soldier. Memories

of Bloody Sunday are burned into people's consciousness here in

Derry, and some of the images are painted on the walls. Five years

ago, an inquiry found that members of the British Parachute regiment

had fired into a crowd of civil rights protesters without warning,

and that did lead to an official apology from the Prime Minister in

the House of Commons. Now the families were happy that they got an

apology, but they have always pushed for a criminal investigation, and

they have welcomed today's arrests of this 66-year-old man. He is a

former paratrooper and did give evidence to the inquiry under the

title of Soldier J. The MOD would not comment today on what they said

was a criminal investigation, but the PSNI did say that this marked

the start of a new phase of their investigation, one that could

continue for some time. That is an indication that they could be more

arrests. Thank you, Chris. Aung San Suu Chi, the leader

of the opposition in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma,

says she's confident the military will accept

the results of Sunday's elections. Her party is expected

to win by a landslide. In her first interview

since the vote, she told our correspondent

Fergal Keane that voters would not tolerate

any intervention by the military. Aung San Suu Kyi had

the smile of the victor, convinced her party

had enough votes to form the country's first

democratic government. What is your sense

of how well the NLD has done? well, around 75%

in the union legislature. And that will be enough,

more than enough, The minimum requirement

is about 67% if we are to be able to form

a government on our own. Do you believe that the generals,

the people who have controlled here for so long,

will allow you to do that? Well, they've been saying

repeatedly that they will respect

the will of the people and that they will implement

the results of the election. sabotage your nascent democracy

in this country. I think they should think of it

not as sabotaging our efforts, should they try to do

something like that. What they would be sabotaging

is the will of the people. Her supporters want Aung San Suu Kyi

to be president, but she's barred from that job

thanks to a specific clause in the constitution

imposed by the military. You spoke the other day

about being above the President, Well, I'll make all the decisions,

it's as simple as all that. If I'm required to field a president

who meets the requirements of Section 59F of the constitution,

all right, we'll find one. But that won't stop me

from making all the decisions It's a name only -

a rose by any other name! One of the most significant

promises in the interview like these Rohingya being targeted

by Buddhist extremists. It's not going to be easy, that they

must understand, because prejudice is not removed easily, and hatred

is not going to be removed easily. But we can work at it together,

and I'm confident that the great majority of the people

of this country want peace. This is just the beginning

of the road, There's a lot more to be done

before, I think, our people will feel secure enough

to celebrate. That is a caution born

of experience. The time is 6. 17pm. Our top story

this evening David Cameron lays out Britain's

demands for EU reforms The migrants fleeing human rights

abuses in Eritrea, Coming up on Reporting Scotland

at 6.30pm: The farmer facing eviction after 20 years

on this land in East Lothian. And, Gordon Strachan says

his Scotland squad are ready for next year's World Cup qualifiers,

despite our Euro 2016 failure. Hundreds of miners and their

families have been marching today in protest against thousands of job

losses which could leave the British Thousands of redundancies have been

announced at Redcar, Scunthorpe and Lanarkshire, with more jobs

under threat in the West Midlands. Our UK affiars correspondent, Jeremy

Cooke, reports on the families All the fathers

and generations have worked here. It's the industry which has built

this place, forged a community. We're a long, long way from London

and it's easy for them to see steel Here, steel's about jobs,

livelihoods, families. Today, the protest hit the streets,

part of an ongoing campaign. The demos and lobbying and petitions

all aimed at saving jobs. If they've got any chance of a job,

they might get on the steelworks. British Steel is feeling the heat

from cheap subsidised imports. The workers here insists that

their product is better and safer, but cannot compete with the

Chinese, who pay much less for their The steelworks has dominated the

skyline here for 125 years and you get the sense that it's shot through

the DNA of this entire community. Now though there are growing fears

that all of this may soon pass Steel has been the history

of this family. 30 years ago you've got a job

for life there. Three generations

of steelworkers here. One mid-career,

one just starting out. It's given us a family that we love

and we're so, so sad to think that I've been brought up into a family

that can provide for their sons and daughters and to go on the dole

is the last thing I want to do. Dozens of businesses have grown

up next to the steelworks. This workshop has adapted to survive

and to thrive, now using steel not just from across

the way, but from across the world. They're taking people on,

but not enough to compensate We've gone through massive

job losses here before. I think we've lost 22,000 jobs

in 30 years, but these 900, it feels Ministers say they want to help,

but stress that the basic problems are international

and set by forces a long way from The Government has delayed

its plans to relax Sunday trading laws in England and Wales

because of opposition from the Scottish National Party, Labour

and some Conservative backbenchers. The SNP had said it would vote

against the changes amid fears it could drive

down the wages of Scottish workers. The supermarket chain Asda has said

it will not take part in The annual day of cut prices - first

promoted in America - has resulted The management of Asda said

customers were "tired" of the event. Trying to tackle the root causes

of the migrant crisis, that's the topic at a special meeting this week

of European and African leaders. We know why people are fleeing

the war in Syria, Time and time again,

our reporters have found Eritreans The country's human rights record

has pushed roughly half At first, they head

for neighbouring Ethiopia, from This is a difficult journey

for anyone, let alone a child. She's made the journey into exile

from Eritrea with her aunt and They all walked

for three days to reach the border. They're now hoping to join family

in Denmark. But so many other Eritrean

youngsters in Ethiopian refugee camps are

on their own, with no family. This boy was 11 when he crossed

the border in the dead of night. He didn't want to be identified

for fear of reprisals I left from Eritrea

because I don't want military service and I walked with

my friend, at 2.00am in the morning, The young people

in exile here are victims of a dictatorship back across the

border that's forced them to flee. Often, it's tearful parents who tell

them to go, to avoid open-ended conscription in the military

and to find a democracy, possibly Meet Nuria, she's 15,

has an air of confidence about her, "I don't have anything and no-one to

send me money ", she says. I want to leave Ethiopia

and go abroad to help them." It's hard to believe what so many

of these children have been through, often walking

for days out of Eritrea across the border to get here into

northern Ethiopia, leaving behind They've had to grow up fast,

and their odyssey isn't over. The UN estimates 20%

of the migrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean this year

to reach Europe are unaccompanied Easy prey for criminal gangs

and child sex traffickers. In this refugee camp they attend

school and are well fed, but the plight of children will be

top of the agenda at the How best to protect the weakest

of the weak. Clive Myrie,

BBC News, in Ethiopia. She's been a star of stage

and screen for more than 50 years, with roles from The Prime of

Miss Jean Brodie, decades ago, Dame Maggie Smith's now starring

in the film of Alan Bennett's stage hit, The Lady in the Van,

and she's been speaking to Maggie Smith as Miss Shepherd,

the eccentric old lady who parked her van on Alan Bennett's drive

in Camden and stayed there You're not doing me a favour, you

know, I have got other fish to fry. I'm about the only person I

know who hasn't ever seen her. No, but nearly everybody I meet

has had come across her. What with all this to do I think I'm

about to be taken short. It was odd because Alan,

to this day, keeps coming up with He said, I don't believe him

for a moment, he said, I wouldn't have been

able to cope with it. She would have impinged. She

would definitely impinged. Listen to me Miss Shepherd there are

no boa constrictors in Camden Town. I know a boa constrictor

when I see one. Have you seen roles come

and go you wish you'd done? I mean, now I'm stuck with being,

you know, a mean old cow. That's true, but, you know,

so be it. Mrs Crawley tells me that you paid

her a visit when you first came, Are you pleased to see the back

of it? Would you ever say you'd given,

in your own eyes Ever say you have given

a great performance? I'm not sure many would

agree with that. Maggie Smith is quite clearly

a master of her art. Welcome back. Thank you. A mild day

across the UK after a record breaker last night, our warmest November

night on record. Temperatures in County Down 16 Celsius. It should be

five degrees at the moment. We hit 19 through the afternoon today here.

South-westerly winds bringing in warm air, it continues to be with us

tonight. Mildest air to the south of this weather front. Cooler further

north. Temperatures will drop into single figures. The weather front

will bring heavy bursts of rain, Northern Ireland, Scotland and

northern parts of England. Drizzle around western and southern coasts.

A grey day, misty around the coasts. Brighter to Scotland and Northern

Ireland. Not as warm as it has been. We will see showers, sunshine in

between. Northern England, north and west Wales will see the rain

relentless through the day. Given how much has fallen this week there

is a risk of flooding by the end of the day. 15 to 17 to the south of

that with brightness and showers. Heavy showers to Scotland and

Northern Ireland. Gusty winds. They will get out of the way later in the

night. Into Thursday a brief respite, dryer, brighter weather to

start the day, mist and fogs patches to the east. Gales will develop.

Rain will spread in. What is heading our way is the Met office's first

name storm of the season, Abigail. Biggest impacts to nosht-west

Scotland, winds potentially of 80mph. Blustery day for us all on

Friday. Showers wintry over higher ground. It will feel cooler. These

are the temperatures this afternoon. These are the temperatures we expect

on Friday afternoon. They are close to what it should be for the time of

year. Thank you very much. I just want to say it's good to be back

with you. That is all from the BBC's news at Six. Goodbye from me. On BBC

One