30/05/2017 BBC News at Six

Tonight at Six - Labour's key manifesto pledge on childcare

but Jeremy Corbyn stumbles over its cost.

He's now apologised for not knowing the bill for extending free care

I will give you the figure in a moment.

You are logging into your iPad here, you've

announced a major policy and you don't know how much it costs?

Theresa May concentrates on Brexit and says she'll be ready on day one

The SNP launches its manifesto - Nicola Sturgeon calls for Scotland

to have a greater say in Brexit negotiations.

Scotland must have a choice about our future.

The choice between following the UK down the Brexit path or becoming

We'll bring you the latest in this, the last full week of campaigning.

Returning to Manchester - Ariana Grande announces a benefit

concert to remember the victims of the terror attack.

Passionate about her job - tributes to the zookeeper killed

It's been a 45-year wait - Huddersfield celebrates the team's

And coming up in the sport on BBC News...

It's "Wenger In" as Arsene signs a new two-year

deal to extend his 21-year stay as Arsenal manager.

Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six.

Jeremy Corbyn has apologised for not knowing the cost of one of Labour's

In the last full week of campaigning, this was a chance

for him and Theresa May to press home their messages.

Instead Labour has found itself having to explain

what the Conservatives have a called a car-crash interview

in which he failed, repeatedly, to say how much it would cost

More on the Conservatives in a moment but first

here's our deputy political editor John Pienaar.

Got to keep up, cannot fall too far behind. More free childcare might

play well with voters. Some say don't play with children. It Jeremy

Corbyn knows what looks and sounds good. Ought to know. Look at these

wonderful children here, they all need a childcare place, so ours is a

universal provision so every child gets a place of at least 30 hours a

week from 22 aged four. Playtime over, onto women's hour, what could

go wrong. How much will it will it be to provide childcare for 1.3

million children. It will cost a lot to do so. I presume you have the

figures? Yes I do. So how much will it cost? I will give you the figures

in a minute. You are logging into your iPad in a minute. Can I give

you the exact figure in a minute. Is this an issue with people in the

Labour Party which came up under Gordon Brown, we cannot trust you

with our money. Not at all, our manifesto is fully costed and

examined. You have been looking at your iPad, you have had a phone call

and you don't know how much it is going to cost. Can we come back to

that in a moment? If we don't invest in our children and invest in them

for the future they do less well in primary school, less well in

secondary school and less well in the future. At a rally in Watford,

he was amongst friends. A much better tomorrow for everybody in

this country. Thank you very much. Mr Corbyn, you Labour's choice for

the next Prime Minister, but you couldn't put a cost on the key

childcare policy he went out to promote. How do you answer the

suggestion this showed a lack of basic confidence? I didn't have the

exact figure in front to me so I was unable to answer that question. For

which, I apologise. But I don't apologise for what is in the

manifesto. There is always a queue to see Jeremy Corbyn. But whether

you are a convert to the cause or not, who doesn't want more for

childcare, hospitals and schools and tax those who can afford it. Leaving

Labour can deliver without borrowing and taxing more than the party is

admitting, is another question. And seeing Jeremy Corbyn is not just

well-meaning but prime ministerial, people will remain to be convinced.

I want to know how he can pay for it all. He comes across very well with

the youngsters, but he hasn't got all his facts and figures correct. I

think he is one of the most honest politicians we have seen in the last

15 years, to be honest. I have seen him on a couple of things recently

and he gives honest answers, which is more than I can say for their

members of the other parties. People need to give him a chance. If you

don't try something, you don't know how good it can be. Some love him,

but Jeremy Corbyn needs more believers, and not just in his sums.

The square root of nine is three. The square root of 16 is for. Will

that do you. He needs more trust, he has got ten days to earn it.

For the Conservatives it was not Labour's policies but the competence

of its leader that was the focus of their fire today.

In a speech about Brexit the Prime Minister questioned

Jeremy Corbyn's fitness to conduct talks with the EU.

But Labour says Mrs May's negotiating position so far had made

Here's our political editor Laura Kuenssberg.

Your road, everyone's Avenue. It is on all our streets and that the

doors where elections are decided. Has a shaky few days for Theresa May

made much difference? I wish she would make her mind up. I know it is

a woman's privilege... But not in politics. On plenty of doorsteps,

the perceptions of the two leaders could hardly be more far apart.

Everything she does is so proficient. I don't like that Mr

Corbyn to be the head of the Labour Party, if they get in. I cannot see

them getting in, can you? I like Theresa May, I think she is good. I

don't like Jeremy Corbyn. Theresa May wants to drive her hoped-for

contrast home so after a tricky few days, our top up of her main

message, back onto Brexit. To try to get away from accusations of

indecision. Her number one target, the Labour leader. With his position

on Brexit, he will find himself alone and naked in the negotiating

chamber of the European Union. With the Brexit negotiations June to

begin only 11 days after polling day, he is not prepared for those

negotiations. But I am prepared. Prepared to take the difficult

decisions that leadership the man's. I am ready to go. Jeremy Corbyn, is

not. Election campaigns test leaders, don't they? Isn't the

emerging truth of this campaign is it is showing you a leader to be

weaker rather than stronger? Let me tell you what strong and stable

leadership is about. It is about being open with the challenges we

face and that is what we have done in the manifesto we have set out.

Strong and stable leadership is about being open and the hard

choices that lay ahead in order to build the stronger Britain. But

despite the Tories' recent troubles, any scepticism towards them perhaps?

It is a case of labour trying to cling on in areas like this, the

Midlands margins. One source told me the fundamentals of the campaign

hasn't changed. Questions in voters' minds about Jeremy Corbyn, the

Tories tried to focus on Brexit. Negotiations in Brussels seem remote

from the hard graft of this campaign. But Theresa May wants to

make this about her authority to carry them out. But the Tory wobble

has been noticed on the doorsteps and it is here her party has to make

their case. And house by house, street by street, for both sides,

time is running out. And live now to our political

editor Laura Kuenssberg Watching your report, it was quite a

personal attack on Jeremy Corbyn? It certainly was, George. You can

faintly hear the jangling of Tory nerves. And ten days out, it is not

a time for flowery language, it is not a time for appeals to the

electorate about elegant philosophies, or even, time for more

arguments about public services or more new policies on health or on

education. This is a time, in their view, to go after the central

question, who do the voters trust to take the country to the difficult

complex of leaving the European Union and the Tories will no doubt

use the kind of confusion we saw from Jeremy Corbyn over childcare as

the kind of evidence to suggest again in his closing moments of the

campaign, to suggest that he's just not up to it. No question in the

last few days, we have seen the polls tightening and there is a new

scepticism on the doorsteps towards the reason may. But with this time

to go, they were returning to their core argument and I don't think the

Tories will budge from it. It might not be elegant, they hope it will be

effective but it is not necessarily the kind of message and not the kind

of campaign where the party is trying to inspire voters, but it is

what they hope will see them through. Laura, thank you.

The Scottish National Party has launched its election

manifesto pledging to promote fairness and opportunity.

Leader Nicola Sturgeon, said Labour was in disarray

and the only way to keep the Conservatives in

She also said that an SNP victory in Scotland would "further

reinforce" the mandate for a second referendum on independence.

Our Scotland Editor Sarah Smith is in Perth.

Sarah? This is a tricky election for the SNP because they are almost

victims of their own success. They did so well in 2015, winning all but

three of the seats in Scotland, they cannot do any better. But if they

lose any, opponents will say, it shows people don't want another

independence referendum and that is why there was barely a mention of

that referendum here today. Nicola Sturgeon know she won't be

walking into Number Ten as the next Prime Minister. The SNP cannot form

a UK Government, so head coach? They are the only effective opposition.

Now, more than ever it is vital to have strong SNP voices standing up

to Scotland at Westminster. A vote for the SNP on June the aids will

strengthen Scotland's hands against Tory cuts. It will strengthen our

hand against an extreme Brexit and it will strengthen Scotland's right

to make our own decisions. The SNP advocate an additional ?118 billion

in public spending. Raising the minimum wage to over ?10 and raising

the top rate of tax to 50p. Nicola Sturgeon had less to say about a

second referendum on Scottish independence. Are you worried it is

a vote loser? Know, at the end of the Brexit process, I think Scotland

should have a choice over our own future. I have also said, in this

election there is a more immediate opportunity and that is to

strengthen Scotland's hands in the Brexit negotiations. You have

changed your language about independence, you talk about

Scotland have a choice, we almost never hear you say a second

referendum. It is almost as though you are a bit embarrassed about it?

Saying I talk about nothing else, that is not true. But they want to

talk about nothing else because particularly the Tories are

embarrassed about their record and the policies in their manifesto.

Right on cue, a Tory protest promising to block another

referendum. Then drowned out by the SNP. You say more SNP 's will be

able to stand up to the Tories, you have 56, what material difference

did any of them make to the lives of any Scottish voters in two years?

This Prime Minister is not so much the iron Lady, and she is the queen

of the U turn. Therefore the stronger the SNP and Scotland's

voice is, the more we can effect change to Tory positions that are

damaging so many people. The SNP's biggest challenge is holding onto

those MPs. It will be difficult to hold onto 56 seats and nobody

expects them to do so. But I would be surprised if they lose more than

half a dozen. Even if they lose two or three, it will be said their vote

is going backwards and they have lost momentum towards another

independence referendum. It will be spun that way by the other parties.

So it is all aboard the campaign bus and there is not a moment to lose.

The singer Ariana Grande has announced she'll return

to Manchester on Sunday to hold a benefit concert in memory

of the 22 people who died in the suicide bombing

She'll be joined by other musicians including Justin

Our Home Affairs Correspondent June Kelly is in Old Trafford now.

This is going to be quite an undertaking so soon after the

attack? That's right. A major security challenge for Greater

Manchester Police when this benefit takes place here at the cricket

ground. Today the Chief Constable, Ian Hopkins, said he had taking

soundings from both the bereaved families and the victims of the

arena bombing and while most were in favour of this benefit going ahead

on Sunday, some felt that it was simply too soon because of course

there are 50 people still in hospital and some of them are in a

critical condition. Now the security situation has been complicated by

the fact that on Sunday afternoon the former Manchester United star,

Michael Carrick, is due to have his testimonal up the road at Old

Trafford Football Ground. It was announced this afternoon that that

game has been brought forward by 90 minutes so that there will be more

breathing space following the end of that match and the start of the

Ariana Grande concert. People coming to both these events here on Sunday

should expect extremely stringent security measures. June, thank you

very much. The time is 6. 16pm. Our top story this evening.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, has apologised after struggling

to explain the cost of a key pledge on childcare that he was

Still to come: Thousands turn out to celebrate Huddersfield's return to

top-flight football. There's a shock defeat

for the British Number One, Johanna Konta, in the first

round of the French Open. Konta was beaten in three sets

by Chinese Taipei's Hsieh Su-ewi. Patients of the breast surgeon

Ian Paterson will find out tomorrow how long he'll spend in jail, that's

following his conviction last month for carrying out unnecessary

operations on 17 women. Lawyers say hundreds of Paterson's

patients could have undergone As Jeremy Cook reports,

some victims are calling A broken bond of trust

between a doctor and his patients. He told them he'd cut them free of

life-threatening cancer - he lied. I had no need to be there and he had

no reason to cut bits off me. Ian Paterson removed lumps,

performed entire mastectomies, deliberate mutilation

for no medical reason. Judy Conduit suffered a catastrophic

infection following Paterson's phoney diagnosis that

both her breasts must be removed. John Ingram was among ten

former patients chosen to testify against Paterson

at his nine week trial. As a man, his case was not typical,

but in every other aspect He persuaded me to undergo

a double mastectomy. A massively invasive procedure

and the lumps in John's chest Paterson exploited me as a person

for his own ends both as a cash cow, being paid to operate needlessly

on me, to satisfy whatever bit of twisted logic is in his head

and also he exploited me I thought it was

cowardly and pathetic. The scale of Paterson's

crimes is breathtaking. Every face here a victim, and this

is the just the start of it. Solicitors believe the final count

may run into the hundreds, This guy potentially has a history

of offending that spans 15 years or more maybe,

and that has got to be addressed. The sentence has got to be

significant enough so that society In my eyes, he deserves nothing less

than a life sentence, I hope they throw away the key

and he never comes out. Never to do this to

anybody else again. Paterson has been told to expect

a custodial sentence The maximum punishment

is life in prison. Investigations are continuing

into the death of a zookeeper in Cambridge yesterday

after she was attacked by a tiger. Rosa King had worked

at Hamerton Zoo for 14 years. In a tribute, her mother said

she loved her job and wouldn't We do a lot of work

for conservation, a lot Conservation and compassion,

words Rosa King lived by. Today, flowers were laid

at Hamerton Zoo by friends and visitors who were struggling

to come to terms with her death. She was the most caring,

compassionate woman you could ever meet and she's going to be sorely

missed by everyone who knew her. In a statement her

mother Andrea said... Rosa had an infinity for big cats,

she was inside the tiger enclosure In what the zoo is calling

a "freak accident", one of the deadly predators got

in and mauled her to death. One visitor told the BBC it was

the animals that raised the alarm. Just basically the cheetahs

were pacing up and down. You could sense that they knew

something had happened. Basically, the parakeets,

which were close to the cheetahs, they were picking up,

they were sensing something had happened, and they

were going ballistic. For the park the question

is relatively simple - how did an experienced zookeeper

come to be trapped in an enclosure The police say they've

dropped their investigation because there were no suspicious

circumstances, but are sending their files to the local authority

which grants the zoo its licence, and they will decide

whether there should be any proceedings brought for breaches

of health and safety rules. But those are issues for another

day, for staff here now thoughts The entertainer Rolf Harris will not

face a further retrial on indecent assault allegations after a jury

failed to reach a verdict. Rolf Harris left court

today without comment, but said, through his solicitor,

he felt "no sense of He'd been accused of groping three

teenage girls in the 1970s and '80s. In Belfast, the SDLP

leader, Colum Eastwood, has launched his party's manifesto

with a strong focus on fighting a hard Brexit and a hard border

between Northern Ireland He said the nationalist party

would stand up "against borders, division and cruel crippling cuts"

and claimed Theresa May had called the general election with little

thought towards Northern Ireland. As we face into the new challenges

across Ireland, we must be mindful of the protections that Europe has

gifted us and we must remind others that our situation is unique,

more challenging and deeply To do that, we need strong voices

taking a stand against the Tories It's a club that last

played top-flight football Now, Huddersfield Town

will compete with the best in the Premier League next season -

that's after winning This evening, the town's laying

on a parade, Katie Gornall's there. Katie. Yes, the parade has ended up

here at the centre of Huddersfield. The players are currently on stage

celebrating with their fans. Their promotion to the Premier League.

These are celebration that is few would have expected. Only 14 years

ago, Huddersfield were in the bottom tier of the English Football League.

After beating Reading they are not moving up.

In Huddersfield, now they feel anything is possible.

For fans, young and old, past and present, this has

been a season that's exceeded all expectations.

I woke up this morning, wiped my eyes and I said,

It just goes to show that you don't need a lot of money

We've achieved so much and it's amazing, ain't it Darcey?

After 54 games of a gruelling season, it all came

COMMENTATOR: And he takes that chance!

One swing of his boot and Christopher Schindler had made

They were led here by the relatively unknown German manager,

David Wagner, a left field appointment that has lifted

Our wage bill is small, but the hearts and desire

Huddersfield's glory days were becoming a distant memory.

It was back in 1922 when they won the FA Cup and then three

After a more recent decline into administration,

now, against the odds, their long journey back

Katie Gornall, BBC News, Huddersfield.

Time for a look at the weather. Here's Tomasz Schafernaker.

The weather was cloudy, there was rain earlier on. It's starting to

improve, actually, for many of us, across northern parts of the UK, it

will be a lovely evening, dry with clearing skies into tonight. Let's

look at the satellite picture from earlier on. A lot of cloud across

the UK. This curl of cloud, that is the weather front that moved across

the north. It brought rain earlier on, now beautiful weather in

Northern Ireland. It's clearing skies during the night across

Scotland. To the south it will stay a little bit on the cloudy side.

Maybe some murk around the coasts, around 14 degrees, milder, muggier

here. In the north nippy under the starry skies. Tomorrow, apart from

the south where it might be cloudy first thing, on the whole it's

looking beautiful. Lots of sunshine around. Those temperatures really

pleasant, 23 in London, 21 across Yorkshire, not far off 20 in the

lowlands of Scotland as well. That fine weather, bar the odd light

shower if you are unlucky, will last until the end of the day. A fine day

on the way tomorrow. Towards Thursday, slight change on the way.

Low pressure parked to the south of Iceland and Greenland is moving

towards our neighbourhood. It will bring rain into north-western areas,

heavier at times, to the south of it we are seeing warmer air from

France. Coming back in. On Thursday the temperatures across some parts

of the country will be rising whereas in the north-west we have

fresher, wetter Atlantic weather setting in. The weather front will

be slow moving. It will bring light rain to Wales and some northern

parts. You can see where the fresh weather is. In the south-east it

could be as high as 26. The south particularly warming up briefly,

always a bit fresher in the north. A bit of rain from time to time. On

balance, actually, not too bad. Thank you very much.

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