19/04/2017 East Midlands Today

And now the news for the East Midlands, I'm Dominic Heale.

Veteran MPs Ken Clarke and Margaret Beckett have said

they will stand again in the General Election.

Mr Clarke, the Tory MP for Rushcliffe since 1970,

hopes to be fighting fit despite recent health problems.

While Derby South MP Margaret Beckett says she'll stand

if selected by her local Labour party.

Meanwhile, another long serving MP, Dennis Skinner, actually voted

Looking back at other developments on a tumultuous day in Westminster

here's our Political Editor Tony Roe.

Prime Minister's Questions, the first question and

As the nation prepares to go to the polls, apart

from my right honourable friend, who else in this house can

provide the leadership that is needed at this time?

For 40 minutes, 85-year-old Dennis Skinner bobbed

up and down to catch the Speaker's eye, until...

Will the Prime Minister give a guarantee that no Tory MP

who is under investigation by the police and the legal

authorities over election expenses in the last general election be

a candidate in this election, because if she won't accept that,

this is the most squalid election campaign that has

"That's the real reason you called it", he yelled,

as the Prime Minister replied she would be supporting all Tory

candidates and getting out around the country to campaign.

Will this be the Brexit election, or the Corbyn election?

Or will old party battle lines be drawn?

I fought for communities and that's what I shall do,

I shall be a local champion for the area.

The Conservatives will be the main challengers as they always are.

In the end, there will be somebody who stands up for the government.

We are aiming to give the Prime Minister a mandate

to negotiate in the most important negotiations our country has

One thing is sure, once Parliament is dissolved,

this place will be deserted as politicians head home, looking

Mark Stuart is from the Faculty of Social Sciences at

Good evening. How will this play out, will it be a bread and butter

election about the NHS, or a rancorous rerun of the EU

referendum? I think it will start with exit but all the other issues

will feed off that. I think we will seek Labour pushing to the domestic

agenda on the NHS, social care and so on. Which seats do you think are

vulnerable? I suppose we will be talking about Labour seats. Yes, it

depends on the scale of the defeat. If we are looking at a moderate

Labour defeat, some would fundable but a swing to the Conservatives,

Lillian Greenwood might even need to look out, and she could possibly be

vulnerable. How reliable do you vulnerable. How reliable do you

think the polls will be in this period? I think they will be fairly

accurate. The problem in the recent polls is that they have

underestimated busy conservative voters. If anything, the

Conservative vote is underestimated. So that means that if Theresa May's

lead is as fast as might be suggested, people stay home and sit

on their hands? Yes, that is the biggest danger, if people know the

outcome of the election, they might not bother voting. Voter fatigue is

a risk. We heard from Brenda from Bristol, expressing her exasperation

and that may be a widespread view. Yes, indeed. We could be looking at

her the ten out of 2001 levels. Interesting.

Now, to the revival of a once-struggling

New figures show that about 600 jobs have been created in the region's

textile industry over the last four years.

It's down to a combination of government and private investment.

But manufacturers say even more investment is needed.

Navtej Johal has been looking at the figures.

Textiles have always been at the heart of our region's

The silk mill in Derby was the world's first factory

But, after years of decline, there are signs that the industry

Take a look at these figures from the textiles growth programme.

Our region has had ?60 million in private investment

for the textiles industry of the past four years.

That has helped to unlock almost ?4 million in government grants,

which has led to the creation of hundreds of jobs

with Leicestershire leading the way with 440.

One company feeling the impact of the revival

It has been around for 186 years and creates high-tech

fabrics for the aerospace industry, among others.

Its managing director explained how a recent government grant

We are in the process of creating seven new jobs

and safeguarding 14 jobs, so it's quite significant.

The market for technical textiles is growing year on year.

There are significant opportunities within the core industries

that we are working with, aerospace and automotive

and medical, and certainly growth will carry on.

Well, the growth in our region has been so impressive that the UK

Fashion and Textile Association has said it is actually an example

for its knitting capacity, and for its fast fashion capacity.

There are obviously other hubs of manufacturing around the UK

who have their own specialities, but particularly in terms

of the knitwear industry and fast fashion, the Midlands sector

But the industry does face challenges.

Businesses in our region are complaining of a skills gap and

But, speaking to Adam Ansell earlier, he told me that even though

we are unlikely to ever return to the textiles heyday,

it is a growing industry and demand for British products is high

About 1,000 cannabis plants with a street value of ?500,000 have

been found during a raid at a former restaurant in Nottinghamshire.

The plants were growing across two floors of the former

The property on Cordy Lane used to be called the Yew Tree.

Police have arrested a 26-year-old man.

You look at the premises and the square feet that this

occupies, it's actually not very feasible to find it

Yes, we find some in farm buildings and we find some like this

in derelict buildings but your average person that grows

cannabis does so in a bedroom or upstairs of a house

so the 1,000 plants that were recovered here

A business which delivers specialist beds for seriously ill hospital

patients says roadworks near the M1 are causing intolerable delays.

Medstrom which works with intensive care units,

describes the rush-hour gridlock around junction 23A

as "a nightmare" for them, other businesses and motorists.

Around 20 times a day they head out to deliver paediatric and adult beds

to hospitals across the country, often with a two-hour time limit

to reach the patient, but now they say they're

Sometimes we can be sat for an hour around the corner and we're under

pressure to get these products to the patients who are

Work started recently to widen 7.5 miles of the M1.

But at the same time, the major East Midlands Gateway

scheme is being built by the side of the A453.

Two separate lots of roadworks, same area.

The M1 is being upgraded from Junction 23A, but in the same

Rush hour, we have a gridlock situation where access

from the East Midlands Airport onto the A453 and off the M1 just

grinds to a halt and I've seen really dangerous behaviour.

How there wasn't an accident I just don't know.

They say traffic heading for the A50 at Junction 24 is being encouraged

to come off the motorway here at Junction 23A to avoid

the roadworks on the M1 but what they're then doing

is hitting roadworks here on the A453, which businesses

The Highways Agency say they are working

Work is set to continue here until the end of next year.

That's your news, so it's goodbye from me.

Well, we have had a mixture of some quite cloudy weather today, but also

some sunny spells as well. Weather watchers have been busy, thank you

for sending in these beautiful pictures over the course of the day.

As we were having a look at the charts, we can see we have got high

pressure in charge of our weather. pressure in charge of our weather.

It is not going anywhere any time soon, staying with us into the

weekend. That does not mean wall-to-wall sunshine, we have weak

weather fronts coming in our direction, bringing some light rain.

As we go through the course of tonight, we will continue to see

quite cloudy conditions, those showers working down from the north,

but nothing too heavy. Lows of seven Celsius, so milder than last night.

As we go into tomorrow morning, we start with some rightness to the

south, but the cloud will work in bringing some drizzle with it. Then

some slightly brighter spells where that cloud thins and breaks through

the afternoon, with highs of 15 Celsius. Towards the weekend, we

will stick on the same note, a repeat performance with quite a lot

of cloud around, some brighter spells here and there, the odd patch

of drizzle and highs of 14 Celsius. We can see the same picture, just

that high pressure in charge of the weather, and more weather fronts

coming in our direction. Slightly brighter on Sunday. Here is the

outlook. going into the weekend as well. A

similar story across the UK. Thomas matter has that story.

Good evening, before we get to the forecast, I want to show you a map

which depicts how dry it has been during the course of April. Brown is

below average rainfall, blue is above average. You can see how Brown

the map is. Some areas in the south, some counties have only seen a few

percent so far in April. Not necessarily a good thing at all.