06/05/2016 BBC News at Six

In selected to serve in the Scottish parliament. The SNP have won an

historic third term in Scotland, just short of an overall majority.

You have given me a precious opportunity to change this country

for the better, and I promised to seize that opportunity with both

hands. Labour claim they have hung on, there is triumph for the SNP, as

the people deliver their verdict on politicians in elections across the

UK. The Conservatives celebrate unexpected success in Scotland,

pushing Labour into third place. The Labour leader said his party has

done better-than-expected, after it won the biggest cheer of council

seats in won the biggest cheer of council

at the latest results across won the biggest cheer of council

and where they have left the won the biggest cheer of council

government climbs down from its controversial plans to force all

schools in England to become academies. Escaping the wildfires

burning out of control in Canada, some flea in their cars, others have

to be airlifted out. Andy Murray is back on his best, in impressive form

at the Madrid Masters, beating Thomas Berdych in straight sets on

his way to the semifinals. Good evening and welcome

to the BBC News at Six. In the biggest test of political

opinion since the general election, In Scotland the SNP has won

an historic third term the Tories surged ahead

into second place to push Labour, once so dominant

in Scotland, into third. In England, there's

no dramatic change, the Conservatives lost

some council seats. but it still won the most

councillors overall. The Labour leader declared the party

had "hung on" though some of his own MPs were

far more critical. Labour fared better

in the Welsh Assembly elections, winning its first seats

in the assembly, seven of them. Tonight we'll be live with our

correspondents around the UK and we'll bring you the latest

from the London mayoral count here's our Political

Editor Laura Kuenssberg. VOICEOVER: The more things change,

the more they stay the same. Nicola Sturgeon, raining still in Scotland.

-- reigning. Tory divisions do not seem to trouble there are folk too

much, Labour may be inching forward but they need to move miles. All

across England last night, we were getting predictions that Labour was

going to lose councils, we didn't, we hung on, and we grew support in a

lot of places. Because our party is standing up, standing up for the

steel industry, standing up against the cuts in disability payments made

by this government, standing up against the grotesque levels of

inequality in Britain. That is the Labour message. Notice that he said

hung on, rather than won. It is all most impossible for him to win the

country with this. Labour, lost for words in Scotland. Heartbreak as

they are pushed to third in what was home. The unthinkable happened... He

will not have seen a home. The unthinkable happened... He

this here for decades. The Conservatives in second place, here.

I promise that I will serve to the very best of my abilities, it is a

role a -- it is a role I take seriously. The SNP with a touch

fewer seats but very much in charge. We are the very first party in the

era of devolution to poll more than 1 million votes. In constituencies

across our country. The result of the election was emphatic. The

people of Scotland, once again, placed their trust in the SNP, to

govern our country. We want a clear and unequivocal mandate. For the

Westminster government party, if you sweaty and awkward moments, but

despite the Tory splits and spats over Europe, they slept rather than

Cinque. -- they slipped rather than sank. Six years in the government,

of course we do not get everything right, of course sometimes things go

wrong, but people look at the big picture and they want us to go on,

delivering what we promised in the manifesto. Labour dug in to keep all

but one of its councils, surprisingly sells, perhaps. In

areas in the south and around England where they had feared they

would lose vital ground. The challenge, as many of the party

members and MPs know all too well, they have two show that they can

take back territory, not just hold on. But in London, Labour's Sadiq

Khan is on the way to do just that, on track to snatch City Hall from

the Conservatives's Zac Goldsmith. ELECTRO

Wait and see the results. What a big win for Labour, but a powerful purge

for a man who has avoided Jeremy Corbyn at all costs. The Liberal

Democrat leader rushed to his party's pockets of success, the

start of a comeback? Maybe. Even these baby steps are worth popping a

court order two. Last year, terrible result, the result of that outcome

was that we had to roll up our sleeves and we had to fight back, we

have done that with traditional British gusto. Champagne for

breakfast? Why not, if you are Ukip, with new seats in Wales, and old

faces, they squeezed Labour and the Tories almost everywhere, but their

success was most marked in Cardiff. Labour held onto power, suffering

pain and surprise, as the Welsh valleys fell to the Plaid Cymru

leader. A new dawn is about to break in Wales, here in the Rhondda a new

dawn has already broken over the valleys. Their layer upon layer upon

layer of results, but underneath all that, at the core, most pressure on

Jeremy Corbyn, Labour has avoided a disaster, and on one measure, they

are even ahead of the Conservatives, but this is not a good set of

results for the party. If they are to have a real shot at returning to

power, they need to be piling on hundreds and hundreds of seats in

elections like this. These results are nowhere near. It is not just

Jeremy Corbyn's enemies who are warning the party to tread

carefully, tonight, one of his powerful union backers puts him and

his critics on notice. We are at the stage where we should be winning

hundreds of seats, that is not just about Jeremy Corbyn, people will not

work for a divided Labour Party, those on the right of the party,

pushing against Corbyn, they are not doing themselves a service,

certainly not doing the party a service, and most importantly of all

from the GMB perspective they are not doing working people a service.

Rally behind Jeremy Corbyn, who knows what might happen, give it a

go for a year or so is not what we very nearly know that these boxes

contain a Labour victory in London, an important victory for the party,

politics is not just about piling up votes were you know that you can

win, persuading others where you don't not there. -- dare.

So it was a good night for SNP in Scotland,

with a third term as the largest party

with 63 seats out of 129 but two short of a majority.

And it was an unexpected success for the Conservatives,

with the party's best performance ever at the Scottish Parliament.

The Conservatives are on 31, that's a gain of 16.

and the Greens edged ahead of the Liberal Democrats.

Our Scotland Editor, Sarah Smith, is at Holyrood for us now.

Sarah, what's your assessment of the result?

We have learned something very important about Scottish politics,

nearly two years after the referendum, it is still all about

independence. The party has argued about tax, health and education,

mostly, yes voters voted SNP, increasing their vote and returning

them to government, and largely, no voters voted Tory, the party who say

they are the defenders of the union, they delivered a seismic shock to

Scottish politics. VOICEOVER: Labour have a dreadful night... Scots awoke

this morning to news that many thought they would never hear,

Labour, once so dominant, beaten into third place by the Tories. Ruth

Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, barely mentioned in her campaign

that she is a conservative, vomiting simply do stand up to the SNP and

against a second independence referendum. I know that there is

thousands of people that voted for me last night that are not natural

Conservatives, Robert Lee surprise that they considered voting

conservative but they did it because they wanted me to do a specific job,

they wanted somebody to stand up to the SNP and say, you cannot ignore

the decision that we made as a country and try to drag us back to a

second referendum. Ruth Davidson is certainly not your average Tory, a

working-class kick boxing openly gay woman, always game for a good photo

opportunity, she can talk to voters that other Conservatives simply

cannot reach. Scotland now has a Tory MSP for the first time, just

one of their remarkable gains across Scotland. -- Scotland Street. Is

this a surprise? A couple of days ago, Ruth Davidson, who won the

constituency, said she did ago, Ruth Davidson, who won the

she had a chance of taking it. The voters in Edinburgh Central is

bonded to a very effective campaign. Ruth Davidson went out, the last few

months, really campaigning, really going for the fact that she could be

a good opposition. That strategy, it really hit the nail on the head.

What happens to Labour now? What could they do to recover in

Scotland? I don't know what happens to Labour, traditionally it was

always Labour everywhere in Scotland. It is funny now that they

do not seem to have anything to say. What can the Scottish Labour leader

say about being bludgeoned into third place? How do you explain the

losses? What we saw in Scotland last night was the referendum arguments

of the past being run again, strong support for the SNP for the cities

that had voted yes, and strong support for the Tories in the areas

which were known. That is my deep regret, I thought that Scotland

would be ready to move on from those arguments of the past, that has not

happened overnight. If Scottish voters do not move on, Labour will

happened overnight. If Scottish struggle to find a purpose in these

new politics. Nicola Sturgeon's SNP increased their

new politics. Nicola Sturgeon's SNP overall majority but ready to roll,

and still dreaming of an overall majority but ready to roll,

Scotland. -- ready to rule. even though it fell short

of an overall majority Labour are now on 29,

Plaid Cymru on 12, the Conservatives 11

and the Lib Dems 1. Hywel, some comfort for Labour

but UKIP are celebrating. Welsh politics never really

an earthquake, sometimes barely a tremor, we saw

an earthquake, sometimes barely a Ukip, new kids on the block in the

National Assembly, made camera, rocking in the Rhondda Valley, with

a surprise result. What last night really does is ask new questions

about Labour's future here in Wales. -- Plaid Cymru.

the National Assembly has Labour as its largest party.

The celebrations showed relief, rather than rapture.

Labour knows its grip on Wales has loosened.

Its share of the vote is down and rows within the Westminster

party are clearly making life difficult.

I do wish some of the politicians in London would remember

there is an election in Wales and an election in Scotland.

I made my views clear last week as to what I thought of it.

I don't think it affected the result, if I'm honest with you,

people were raising it with us and it was certainly unhelpful.

The election results brought some small, but significant changes

Ukip, the party promising to break the cosy consensus of

Welsh politics, now has Assembly Members, too.

I've always been Labour. changing allegiance?

I just don't think they are doing anything to help the communities.

As for Ukip, it's on everybody's lips, isn't it, it's immigration.

And that's why, and people want jobs for Welsh people.

Change has already come to the National Assembley.

Some new faces have already been sworn in,

but for as long as the anti-Labour vote is split,

it will remain Wales' governing party.

We have the opposition to Labour,

the non-Labour parties, spread, and so,

whilst they make some challenges to Labour,

Labour can now take its time in deciding if it's happy to govern

The new era in Welsh politics still feels a lot like the last.

In Northern Ireland the first results are beginning to come

in though the final outcome isn't expected until tomorrow.

the People Before Profit Party topped the poll in the Sinn Fein

stronghold of west Belfast to win its first seat at Stormont.

Let's talk to our Ireland correspondent Chris Buckler who's

are you getting any sense of the way the voting is going?

Even with less than a quarter of the seats, it is clear that the big

winners are the Democratic Unionist parties, they base much of their

election campaign around their first female leader, she has only been in

the job six months, but it has paid off, and they will be the biggest

party at Stormont once again and once again she will be the First

Minister of Northern Ireland. You Sinn Fein will be the second

biggest party and Martin McGuinness will be Deputy First Minister,

although as you mentioned in Sinn Fein's heartland of West Belfast

they were beaten to the poll by the People Before Profit alliance. They

have their first member at Stormont. That really is a were test vote. But

away from all of that, the DUP and Sinn Fein have once again dominated

this election and they'll dominate Stormont at the expense of both the

SDLP and the Ulster Unionists, although the complicated system of

voting here in Northern Ireland means the counting continues and the

final seats won't be filled until tomorrow at the earliest. Thank you.

Let's get the latest on the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan in the lead.

. I can say that in an hour or so's time Sadiq Khan will become the

Labour Mayor of London. A ray of light for Labour, amid a set of

results that demonstrated how much ground they have to cover. Sadiq

CAP, as he arrived in City Hall, we were waiting with one question, was

it an endorsement of Jeremy Corbyn, answer came, none, in truth, Sadiq

Khan believeses it is his win and not Jeremy Corbyn. . So, the mut

any, the challenge to his leadership, the counterrevolution,

that's being put on hold. There were two MPs ready to stand to get things

going, I can tell you there was one member of the Shadow Cabinet who was

privately prepared to join in, if a contest got started but now Jeremy

Corbyn has got himself a breathing space and the critics, the mutineers

Will have to watch and wait their chance. Wait they will, because this

final reckoning in the Labour Party, it has been delayed, not resolved.

Thank you very much. And there's lots more detail

and analysis on our website and details of the elections

for police and crime commissioners. The national and local elections -

the SNP wins a third term in Scotland where

Labour finish third. Jeremy Corbyn says his party has

hung on in England. As the wildfires spread,

could this be Canada's costliest the Tottenham midfielder will miss

the end of this season and the start of next,

as punishment for violent conduct. The Government has announced a major

climbdown from its plan to force all schools in England

to become academies. After strong protests

from Conservative MPs, teaching unions and schools, the

Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, says the policy is now just

an aspiration and good or outstanding schools will not

have to make the change. Our Education Editor,

Branwen Jeffreys, has more. In the middle of the North Yorkshire

moors, a village school here for more than 100 years,

now just nine pupils, it feared being forced

to become an academy. It was schools like this that

galvanised a Tory revolt. Today the Education Secretary gave

way. With support, those strong local

authorities, where schools are good and outstanding,

they can make the choice to convert, I hope that they will,

because we are convinced that becoming academies does lift

standards, but they can do So what does this

academies climb-down mean? Good schools will not be forced

to become academies, But schools will become academies

in areas where councils And councils will have an equal say

over the future of So they can't close

without local agreement. So I asked Nicky

Morgan how badly did There is a huge appetite amongst

parliamentary colleagues on the Conservative benches

for schools to become academies. But not to be forced

to become academies? Well, that's what we are saying,

we don't think it is necessary for there to be a blanket provision

for schools to convert You put forward these plans,

you defended them. Doesn't this undermine your own

authority as Education Secretary? All government has to be about

listening to Members of Parliament. As Secretary of State for Education,

listening to the provision and listening to those

working in education. As I way, we remain absolutely

committed to all schools becoming academies, we think that's the right

thing to do. George Osborne put these plans

at the centre of his Budget. We are going to complete the task

of setting schools free from local education bureaucracy

and we are going to do A flagship policy, and a massive

climb-down on a busy day This is a bad policy which nobody

wanted and nobody needed. But there is no question,

it is a major u-turn and a humiliating one

for the Government. But I'm pleased that schools can now

concentrate on what Scratch the surface and the end

result may still be many more In Canada, some of the 90,000

people forced by raging wildfires to abandon an entire city

in the province of Alberta are having to be evacuated again

as they find themselves once more endangered by the flames

burning out of control. Some are having to make the risky

journey in convoys of cars, others are having to be

airlifted to safety. Our Correspondent, James Cook,

reports from Alberta. It is mid-afternoon on a bright,

sunny Tuesday. But darkness has descended on Fort McMurray and

80,000 people are fleeing for their lives. Behind, on the left of

screen, animals run from the forest. Those are burning embers flying

through the air. People further on are being chased by the monster

fire. This is what it left behind. These are the first mobile phone

pictures from inside the ruined city. No houses. No cars. Everything

burnt on the streets. Crazy what fire can do. Crazy. Three days on,

the fires are still burning and people are still escaping. Many

thousands, who were trapped north of the city, are now being led to

safety in a convoy. Others are being flown to emergency centres like this

one, more than 200 miles from their ruined homes. Around 150 helicopters

are still fighting this fire. The challenge for the pilots - and more

than 1,000 firefighters on the ground - is clear from the air. The

extent of this wildfire is breathtaking. We continue to monitor

the situation closely, with high temperatures and shifting winds

changing rapidly, we continue to urge caution to all evacuees. And

the power of the fire is truly awesome. Just look at it. Well, this

is what the firefighters are having to deal with. This is just erupted

in the last 15 or 20 minutes. It's taken hold very, very quickly and

the flames are being fanned by very strong winds.

As if that wasn't bad enough, temperatures tomorrow are forecast

to soar. Russia has denied that its aircraft

were involved in the bombing of a Syrian refugee camp yesterday,

in which at least 30 people The airstrike -

in the Idlib province, close to the Turkish border -

has been widely condemned, with the United Nations saying it

could amount to a war crime. Syria's military has also denied any

involvement in the strike. The BBC has learned that

at least eight police forces are investigating whether election

expenses for some Conservative MPs were filed incorrectly after last

year's General Election. The allegations centre around hotel

costs for party activists bussed in to help in a number

of marginal constituencies. It is a criminal offence to file

incorrect election expenses. An online public vote to name

a new British Polar research ship - which came up with the name

Boaty McBoatface - is to be ignored, with the vessel

being named after the naturalist and broadcaster, Sir David

Attenborough instead. 124,000 people backed

the McBoatface campaign but critics said the name

would overshadow its serious work, and make Britain

the subject of ridicule. Time for a look at the weather. Nick

Miller is here. Nick, Boaty McBoatface aside. Glorious weather

to come. Tomorrow some of us may take a

backward step and see some more cloud but by Sunday the sunshine

will be more widespread. We will get to that in a moment. This is the

sunshine today in Norfolk. Our temperatures, despied the sun being

hazier today were higher. Nor Holt in north-west London, 24. 21 in

Cardiff. Threave 18. But for Scotland and Northern Ireland not

yet in the warm air. You get it on Sunday. Tonight most

yet in the warm air. You get it on the chance of the odd shower which

yet in the warm air. You get it on could be thundery in the south-west

of England and Wales later on. Could be mist and fog running into marts

of eastern England and north-east England. A warmer night across

southern parts of the UK compared with recent nights. Tomorrow, this

is what I mean by a backward step towards the west of the UK. More

cloud, showers, maybe thunderstorms. Northern Ireland outbreaks of rain

and we could see that fringing into parts of Scotland. Into the

afternoon, maybe the Midlands, running northwards through the

Pennines, parts of Yorkshire noshgts west England there could be a few

intense thunderstorms and a risk of hail. Uncertainty about that so

check the latest forecast updates. The warmth is still there in the

sunshine in south-east England. Temperatures close to normal for

Scotland and Northern Ireland. If you are close to the east coast of

Scotland, north-east England, sea temperatures, 8 or 9 and with mist

that holds the temperatures down along the coast with the onshore

breeze. Part 2 of the weekend, on Sunday, if you still have a few

showers and thunderstorms out to the west, they will push away northwards

through the morning and by the afternoon, most of us are in the

sunshine and the warmth and that warmth is more widespread. It is

reaching into Scotland and Northern Ireland and that's why we are

looking at Glasgow 20, Belfast 19. Still a cool onshore flow to eastern

coastal parts. The forecasts from you are, are online.

Let's return to our top story - the elections.

has won an historic third term to lead the Scottish Parliament.

Our Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg is in Westminster. What

do the results tell us about the state of the parties and the message

are vote triergs to give state of the parties and the message

are vote triergs to give them? Let's take a breath and stand back. So

many results here. Funnily enough, hardly any change in terms of who is

actually in charge, of whether local councils or of the administration in

Edinburgh and Cardiff. But there are big lessons to take from this from

the political parties. Two big lessons from Scotland. For Labour,

which, remember, needs Scotland if they are to have a chance of winning

another general election, they were roundly rejected. They fell back

still further. It wasn't Jeremy Corbyn's campaign, it was led in

Scotland, but they did put forward more Jeremy Corbyn-friendly

policies, Kezia Dugdale, the leader there, moved the party to the left

and voters said, plainly and firmly that they didn't like it and that

should be a worry for the Labour Party tonight. For the Tories,

though, also a lesson, their modernising candidate, Ruth Davis

son with razzmatazz had astonishing success but here in London, a more

old-fashioned campaign with a nastier tone, saw the parties

stumble back and lose City Hall just over the water. But the Tories,

really, although they didn't see much enthusiasm and they have lost

City Hall, they don't feel there is anything in these results that they

need to panic B the sense from there tonight -- panic B the sense from

there tonight is they have got offline lightly. For Labour, Jeremy

Corbyn's team feel they have done much better than expected but his

internal enemies may have put their knives away for now, but they will

be keeping their blades sharp. There is a deep-routed concern in the

Labour Party that Jeremy Corbyn has not yet shown how he can persuade

voters in the middle he has something to say to them. All this

comes with a whaelt warning, local elections, don't translate to how we

might vote at a general election, but only a foolish political party

would ignore the clues of the last few days. That's all from the BBC

News at 6. Goodbye from me.