16/03/2017 BBC News at Six

The Government rejects the call for a second referendum

Theresa May says not until after the Brexit deal.

Nicola Sturgeon says that would be too late.

I say now is not the time and the reason I say

that, is because all our energies should be being put into the

negotiations with the European Union.

Almost anti-democratic for a Conservative Government with one MP

in Scotland, to seek to block the democratic will of the Scottish

We'll be looking at the response in Scotland and whether the Prime

Minister has done enough to see off a second referendum.

Thank you for coming out today, let's go do it.

But they broke the rules to do so - a record fine for the Tory party

A ex-Team Sky cyclist tells the BBC how he illegally injected substances

The Japanese car-maker Toyota invests a quarter of a billion

And the moment a BBC team got caught on Mount Etna when it erupted.

And coming up in the sport on BBC News, Ruby Walsh rides four

winners on day three at the Cheltenham Festival,

including victory on Nichols Canyon in the feature race,

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six.

The Government has rejected the call for a second referendum on Scottish

independence, saying now is not the time.

Mrs May said the focus needs to be on securing the best

Brexit deal for the UK, and that only after that can

the Scottish people judge whether they want to be part

On Monday Scotland's First Minister called for a referendum

in the autumn of 2018 or the spring of the following year.

Our political editor Laura Kuenssberg reports.

No to this. No to this... No to this... And even no to talks about a

referendum, at least not now. We should be working together, not

pulling apart, we should be working together, to get that right deal for

Scotland, that right deal for the UK, as I say that is my job as Prime

Minister, and so for that reason, I say to the SNP, now is not the time.

The Prime Minister's Westminster message deliberately timed to land

in Edinburgh. Just moments after the First Minister's weekly grilling

where Nicola Sturgeon's audacious vow to hold a second referendum was

the main order of the day. We don't want it, we don't need it. Why won't

she listen? Can the First Minister tell us this?

Does she plan to spend the next few years leading a government or a

campaign? Will Scotland be guaranteed to be a full membership,

member of the European Union, or not? Can she guarantee that? If she

can't it is bluster just again. ? The band is well and truly back

together, isn't it. Tory and Labour combining again, to talk this

country down. Number Ten's refusal to discuss

another independence referendum for two years could well backfire.

But these two tough normally cautious politicians are both taking

gambles. I think it would be completely unacceptable, and

outrageous, and almost anti-democratic for a Conservative

Government with one MP to seek to block the democratic will of the

Scottish Parliament. That seems to be like going back to the bad old

days of Margaret Thatcher. Here is Number Ten's cam lacing, a majority

of Scots voters chose this centre of power the last time out and private

Tory focus groups over the last few months suggest their message of not

now is a relief to some, who simply don't want to go through the whole

thing again. But for others, it will be patronising, arrogant, even.

Technically it is down to Westminster to say yes or no but

telling the Scottish Government they can't even talk about another

referendum for two years, risky doesn't begin to cover it. Only a

week ago, expectations were that the SNP was getting a big move ready, as

they prepare for their Spring Conference that will start this

weekend. But before that stage is set, the drama whose ending will

affect us all is well under way. Our Scotland Sarah Smith

is at Holyrood in Edinburgh. What's the response

in Scotland, and what is Well, Nicola Sturgeon's defiant

response is she is not going to take no for an answer, and she thinks she

can turn this battle with Theresa May to her advantage, the Scottish

Government were fully expecting this response from Downing Street and

they are ready with their next move, they will proceed with a vote in the

Scottish Parliament on Wednesday, which is certain to vote for another

referendum. And they will request formally from the Prime Minister

that referendum, so that she has to officially deny it. Something they

will say is a democratic outrage, defying the will of the elected

Scottish Parliament. And the SNP could for now turn this into a

debate that is not about the rights and wrongs of independence but

rather about who is it that should get to decide when or if Scotland

has another referendum. The Tories are well aware that two heavy-handed

a response from Westminster could backfire, as Laura mentioned there,

they have been conducting focus groups all over the country, trying

to, who out what voters would think is a reasonable way to proceed. They

obviously think they are on the right side of that line, but it is a

tricky one and the SNP do still think that if Scots think they are

being denied the right for a vote, maybe people who don't want a

referendum at the moment, might think they shouldn't be denieded

that vote and that could build support not just for a referendum

The Conservative Party has been fined a record ?70,000

for breaking spending rules during the 2015 general election,

The Electoral Commission said there had been significant failures

in the reporting of expenses, and that there was a "realistic

prospect" the money had given the party an advantage.

12 police forces have now asked the Crown Prosecution Service

The Conservative Party insists any failures were due

That vote and that could build support not just for a referendum

but independence itself. Let us campaign. The South Thanet

constituency in 2015, where the Conservatives were battling Nigel

Farage. Desperate to stop him winning a seat. Any chance... They

poured big names and resources into it. Now they have been given the

biggest fine, ?70,000, for breaking the rules on recording election

spending. Here, and elsewhere. We have never issued findings to

that extent before, and I think they are some of the worst in the fact

that they were unable to provide evidence when we needed it and the

reports were inaccurate and the spending returns did not contain

things they should have done. The Tory candidate won the seat, his

official expenses after the campaign showed he was within the local

spending limit, but the party's spending in the area is now under

question. The Conservative Party spent thousands of pounds on hotels

here in South Thanet, is a,000 in a single hotel on the hill here, in

Ramsgate and the Electoral Commission says at least some of

that money should have been included in the local candidate's election

expenses. One of the local Ukip leading lights total me they felt

the Conservative Party had cheated. Just the sheer number of bodies, the

sheer number of full-time staff down here, the sheer number of buses that

were bringing in volunteers, they were all fed and watered and had

money spend on them. The Conservative Party also had battle

buses of activists touring other marginal seats, again, the Electoral

Commission says that some costs should have been put on local

candidate's expense, possibly pushing them over spending limits.

So far 12 police forces have sent files to the Crown Prosecution

Service, Kent Police is not one of them. Then there was money missed

off the Tory's national experiences all together. More than ?3800 for

hotel rooms in Margate, over ?63,000 of spending on the battle bus tours

and almost 105,00 pounds of other spending. We have complied fully

with the Electoral Commission throughout their investigations,

they have imposed a fine on the Conservative Party and the

Conservative Party will be meeting that fine. We will pay that fine.

If there are criminal prosecutions, they could lead to by-elections for

in constituencies like South Thanet. Recently Labour and the Liberal

Democrats have also been fined for illegal expenses returns, the

Electoral Commission is worried that parties are starting to see the

fines as a cost of doing business, rather than a way of keeping British

elections fair. The leaders of France and Germany

have hailed the result of the general election

in the Netherlands, where the Prime Minister Mark Rutte

has seen off a threat With most of the votes counted,

Mr Rutte's centre-right party has beaten Geert Wilders and his anti-EU

and anti-Islam Freedom Party At least eight people have been

injured in a shooting at a school in the southern French

town of Grasse. The attacker, who was armed

with a rifle, two handguns and grenades, is reported to have

been involved in a dispute It is not being treated

as a terror attack. A 17-year-old student

has been arrested. A former British cyclist has told

the BBC that he broke the sport's rules by secretly injecting himself

with vitamins when Josh Edmondson says he admitted it

to Team Sky in 2014, Team Sky say they did not report

the incident because Edmondson denied self-injecting,

and because they were concerned Our sports editor Dan Roan has

this exclusive report. He was one of British

cycling's top young talents, a team-mate to legends,

but beneath the surface, former Team Sky rider,

Josh Edmondson was struggling to deal with the pressure

and for the first time, the 24-year-old has broken his

silence about the depression he suffered, telling me he linked it

to the controversial painkiller Tramadol which he secretly took

to get through training and races. The dangerous thing

about it is you don't know when you are coming to your limit,

so, I'd be pushing and pushing and pushing and normally

you would just be - I can't keep going, but you just go

a little bit further than that. It is not a performance-enhancing

drug, it doesn't It feels like you are hungover,

almost, so you need it I think the reason for all that,

just immediately after a race, I was at the point where I didn't

leave the house for two months. It doesn't really get

much worse than that, While it's not banned, Team Sky have

had a strict no Tramadol, policy since 2013 and there is no

suggestion they were aware of Edmondson's use of the painkiller

but he then says he went a step no-needle rule by self-injecting

a cocktail of legal vitamins he bought from Italy in the build-up

to a major race in 2014. I bought the butterfly clips,

the syringes, the carnitine, folic acid,

tab, and damiani composer and B12 and I would just inject that sort

of two or three times Especially when I wanted to lose

weight I would inject caritine more I would put the needle in before

making sure there is no bubbles in the butterfly clip

because if they are there, in there, it can give you a heart attack

and people die that way, so it is a very daunting

thing to be doing. But Edmondson was then reported

to Team Sky when vitamins However Team Sky said Edmondson

denied using the needle and bus of concerns over his mental health,

their former clinical director told me he'd advised senior

management not to report If I'd done, that I suppose I'm

looking at safety issues, I did think there was a really big

risk this lad would be He told us very clearly at the time

he hadn't done the injection because he didn't know how

to use the needle. He said "I've never used needles

I've never seen the needles before." As I say, you've got to remember,

without going into too much detail, I haven't got a person

who is in a good place in front Edmondson, however, claims he did

confess at the time, but that senior management

covered it up. They would have had to say publicly

that there was a kid, a young lad on our team injecting,

injecting anything bad, it wasn't that they were banned substances,

it is against the rules to inject, What are you suggesting,

that the team covered up what had happened because they wanted

to preserve the reputation I can see the interpretation and I'm

sure the public can believe that. We did it in good faith and we did

it on two counts, the team discussion was that we didn't think

he had actually violated and the second, the most important

one, he just wasn't in a good place. These revelations come with British

cycling under unprecedented scrutiny over the use of medication,

Edmondson, be meanwhile says he'll cooperate with the authorities

and hopes his story serves The Government rejects the calls

for a second referendum on Scottish independence,

saying now is not the right time. Will Gompertz takes a personal

interest in a tattoo exhibition aiming to reposition them

as an artform. Coming up in Sportsday on BBC News -

Gareth Southagate calls up Sunderland's 34-year-old striker

Jermain Defoe to his England squad, three-and-a-half years

after his last Thousands of school children

across the UK have been taking part in the BBC's annual

School Report news day. This year many have been

tackling the issue of young One pupil, 16 -year-old Grace, wrote

into School Report with her story. She was bullied for nine years

which led to anxiety, depression Our correspondent, Elaine Dunkley,

went to meet her. And I felt like a prisoner

in my own body. When you feel so alone,

you feel like no-one's going to listen.

to you, no-one's It was every day, every

second of every day. From the minute I walked

into the classroom, I was beat up quite a few times

in the space of a month. I'd come home with black eyes

and things like that from what people had done

to me at school. This is a story about

a girl called Grace. Bullying from an early age has had

a devastating impact It started at the age

of seven and got worse. At eight I started

over-eating through stress. By nine I'd started calorie counting

everything that I was eating Quite frankly, the

bullying ruled my life. What impact did the bullying have

on your mental health? And it was, it got to the point

where I was literally I would have nightmare

after nightmare after nightmare about what was going on in the day

and things like that and I used to scream in my sleep

to try to get away from it. At 11 I was about to start high

school and I was really excited about it but in the summer before

high school I started being cyber bullied by one

of my closest friends. At 13, Grace wanted

to take her own life. She made a video saying

goodbye to her family. Luckily Grace's mum Sarah found it,

before it was too late. Only by default the video

was found and when I watched And then I felt angry that I didn't

know that she'd made it, I didn't But that's got to be one

of the lowest, lowest moments because I didn't know

what to do. There needs to be far

more services out there, working with young people,

doing direct work with young people. Young people's mental

health needs to change. Grace did eventually get help

and now she mentors others I never thought that I'd be

as confident as I am or have, like the bravery that I have today,

to go up to people that I don't I don't want the next

generation of kids to go I want to be the person that can

help young people understand that That was Grace's story and if you've

been affected by any of the issues in it,

you can find out more There was a narrow escape

for tourists on Mount Etna in Sicily, when it unexpectedly

erupted - ten people were injured. A BBC news crew was filming

there at the time. Molten rock was shot 200 feet

into the air and the team was pelted with boiling rocks

and engulfed in steam. It's the third time in just under

three weeks that Etna has erupted. The BBC's science correspondent,

Rebecca Morelle, was there. It was extremely terrifying. Etna is

one of the world's active volcanos but we got first-hand experience of

it. We were there filming the lava flow slowly snaking down the

mountain. It is normally considered very safe. That's why there were

tourists there, too, taking a look but all of a sudden there was a

first explosion that went up as steam. That didn't seem too bad but

the second explosion through up the boiling rocks, you have to remember

that magna is more than 1,000 degrees Celsius in temperature.

Boulders coming up and steam and everyone started to run but you

couldn't see. It was almost a total wipe-out because of the scene in

front of you. Luckily we managed to make it to a vehicle that was able

to take us safely back down the mountain. But there were injuries

there, luckily not too serious, cuts, burns and some bruises, and a

guide dislocated his shoulder. We were told we were extremely lucky.

The volcanoologists who was with us, said it was the most dangerous he

had seen in a 30-year career. We were lucky to get out, a narrow

escape. You certainly were. Apologies for some of the break-up

in that report there. Toyota is to invest almost

a quarter of a billion pounds The Japanese car maker says it wants

to improve its long-term Only last week Toyota said it

could delay a decision on building its next generation

Auris car here, depending Today the Government

announced its providing ?21 million in funding for training,

research and development Our Industry Correspondent,

John Moylan, has more. This was Toyota's first plant in

Europe. It has been making vehicles from here, near Derby for almost 25

years. 4 million cars later an the company is investing again, laying

the foundations for the future. We are determined to be competitive.

That means building cars with quality, high-productivity, low-cost

and this investment helps us, hugely, to be competitive for the

long term. So, we think this is a huge part of preparing for the

long-term future. Toyota will invest ?240 million to upgrade the

Burnaston plant. In return, the Government is provided ?21 million

for training and research. It's all good news for the 2,500 workers at

this site. The truth is, this plant needed to be upgraded simply to be

able to compete with Toyota's plants around the world to build new cars.

Now they currently make the Auris and Aventis here. A decision on

whether to bring a new vehicle to this plant is expected in the next

year or two. This investment could make all the difference. But as we

leave the EU, all UK car manufacturers face the prospect of

higher costs, with tariffs on the components they import and on the

cars they export. Despite assurances from the Government, Nissan has

warned it'll re-evaluate its UK operations once the final Brexit

deal is known. Today in Derbyshire, as the Business Secretary Greg

Clarke toured the Toyota plant, the company warned that tariff-free,

barrier-free access to Europe would be vital for its success. Some goo

further If you look back at history, a naek 1972 and 1999 and big falls

in investment. We don't want Brexit to be another one of those turning

points and a hard Brexit ited, where we end up with tariff barriers, I

think would threaten the viability of some of the plants in the UK and

investment here. And investment has been falling. It was down last year

amid the uncertainty around the EU referendum. So Toyota's decision

today will be seen as a vote of confidence in a sector which is

facing challenges ahead. The TV chef, Prue Leith, has been

confirmed as the new judge alongside Paul Hollywood on Channel Four's

the Great British Bake Off. Presenters Sandi Toksvig

and Noel Fielding will host the new-look show, which has moved

from the BBC after it was sold Leith replaces the long-standing

host Mary Berry. From royalty to ragamuffins,

sailors to socialites, like them or loathe them,

tattoos have left an indelible mark Now an exhibition at the National

Maritime Museum, Cornwall, seeks to dispel the bad boy image

of tattoos and re-position Our Arts Editor, Will Gompertz,

went to Falmouth to take a look. Tattoos, as you know,

are all the rage nowadays. You have the geometric all-over

design, the Star Wars' Stormtropper and, of course,

your classic love heart. Do you know what, Lal,

I'm as pleased as punch with that. Back in the late '70s,

Lal Hardy made his living Today he's taking part

in a major museum exhibition, I think the perception of tattoos

has changed because there is so much I mean, every genre and subject

is covered with tattooing now. There's so much beautiful stuff,

you know there isn't a stigma like there used to be attached

to it anymore. It's this shift in the perception

of tattoos that the exhibition charts, as well as taking

on what the curators feel, We start with disspelling the myth

that is Captain Cook brought British people had been tattooed

for hundreds of years before. We start to see evidence of that

in the pilgram tattoos that people were going to have

in the Middle East, when they were going out

in the pilgramages in the 1600s. This is one of my favourite

parts of the exhibition, we are trying to challenge the idea

that tattooing is gender It's not just people that

are getting tattooed but also Justine Knight, the tattooist,

was once the target in a circus Now she's at the business end

of the target no more. It must have been really

hard for her tattooing in what was predominantly a man's

world at the time, in as early as the '20s, '30s, '40s,

but her art is so beautiful and it So the exhibition

finishes with 100 hands. It's a snapshot of what's happening

in Britain and I think it shows not just the diversity of styles,

but the true beauty and artistic Not everybody will agree

with that appraisal. Some see them as a symbol of moral

decline, an image this exhibition seeks to alter by presenting them

as an expression of Of course, mine

wasn't a real tattoo. Lal Hardy said if I just rub it

with this, it'll come... Will Gompertz there getting a little

more than he bargained for... Perhaps.

Time for a look at the weather with Jay.

We saw big contrasts across the UK today. We have lovely sunshine inp

Kent looking across the daffodil field. It wasn't like that for all.

In north-west Scotland we saw a lot of cloud in the sky at times and

showers moving through on a significant breeze. Put them on the

map. You can see in between a lot of cloud but either side a big

temperature contrast. It is that cooler, fresher air in the

north-west that will win out in the next few days. In behind a weak

weather front bringing rain southwards and eastwards. The colder

weather following in behind as do showers for Northern Ireland and

Scotland. Not just rain but wintry weather over higher ground W that a

cold night. Much colder than recently. A touch of frost and even

icy patches in northern Scotland. In the morning north-east Scotland

getting off to a decent start. Elsewhere in Scotland cloud, snow

showers over high grounds. Patchy rain over the Pennines but not too

much gets across to the eastern side first thing. In Wales, patchy cloud,

sunshine as you will find in the south-west but many southern

counties getting off to a decent start. Colder than recently but it

should be bright and breezy with early sunshine. Make the most of

that. It'll cloud over from the north and west as rain continues to

fall across much of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north-west

of the UK, generally speaking will be quite wet. Some eastern areas

will be drier. Temperatures in the range of 7 or so in Aberdeen to

12-13 in London area. Through the evening, on into

Saturday morning, it is still pretty cloudy and grey, outbreaks of rain

and a fair number of isobars in the chart. It'll be breezy to take us

into the weekend. The wind will be a key feature of things through the

weekend. A blustery breeze bringing rain. Most of the weekend rain will

be out towards the west of the UK. So consequently the east should be a

bit drier. A reminder of our main story:

Theresa May has rejected the call for a second referendum on Scottish

independence. And that's all from the BBC News at

Six. Goodbye from me.