04/12/2017 London News

a long way back for England.

Thanks very much.

That's all

Good evening.

Should the capital be given

a special Brexit deal?

It was prompted by a tweet today

from the mayor gently reminding

the Prime Minister that any deal

to keep part of the UK in the single

market should be extended to London

to protect thousands of jobs.

He said.

He made the comments

while on a trade visit to India.

Here's our Brexit reporter

Katherine Carpenter.

It was the Romans who first built

the great Wall around the city to

protect its prosperity and trade.

Today, London's Mayor hinted

at partitioning off the capital once

more, with a special Brexit deal,

similar to the one being thrashed

out for Northern Ireland.

The government has

accepted a principal

today that part of the country

should have part of the single

market.

If it's good enough

for Northern Ireland,

bearing in mind this will protect

tens of thousands of jobs in London,

bearing in mind London is crucial

to the government's well-being

economically and otherwise,

the government should give us

the same deal as well.

His comments were welcomed by some

at this garage on Seven Sisters Rd.

Being in the single market means

goods, services and people can move

around freely.

The owner here says leaving

means costs will go up.

I believe it will be hard for us,

going to be hassle.

As a business runner,

we will be affected quite a lot if

we leave the single market.

If we stayed, it will be better.

But his friend around

the corner was one of

the 40% of Londoners

who voted leave.

He says he will feel cheated

if the mayor has his way.

I don't see how it will work.

How can you segregate

London from the rest of

the country?

It's a view shared by other

pro-Brexit supporters, who

question the practicalities as well.

We decided in 2016,

in a referendum with a huge vote,

to leave the European Union.

Secondly, it's fraught

with practical difficulties.

Where is the boundary going to be?

Who will be in, who will be out?

It's not workable.

This is an opportunity

for the mayor, who have

called many times for more devolved

powers to support London through

Brexit.

If it can be done for

Northern Ireland, which is part of

the United Kingdom, it makes it more

difficult for the government to say

it can be done for one part of

the United Kingdom, and not another,

remembering that London,

Northern Ireland and Scotland

voted to stay in the EU,

while the UK as a whole

voted to leave.

There's still no agreement on the

Irish border.

The Prime Minister has a lot more

on her mind than London,

but the city has a lot on its mind

regarding the future,

and frustration is growing.

Victoria Hollins has

got more on this.

Put this into context for us.

What I think this suggests is that

the mayor believes the Government

doesn't have a strong hand at the

moment in Brexit negotiations. The

mayor of course and others have

argued that London should have a

special case post-Brexit, not least

in relation to immigration. Some

people would argue what's happening

today strengthens that position. Now

he of course joins the leaders of

Scotland and Wales who are arguing

that if Northern Ireland is made a

special case then so should they.

But what needs to be made very clear

here is that this regulatory

alignment being discussed,

apparently discussed at the moment

is not the same as customs union and

a free market. There is an important

difference here. Some people would

argue the mayor is jumping the gun

somewhat. On the other side of that

they may say it's an astute time to

make this sort of comment.

Thank you.

Also on the agenda on the mayor's

trade visit to India and Pakistan

is the issue of student visas.

Sadiq Khan blamed the Prime Minister

for making it difficult for Indian

nationals to come to London

to work and study.

Our political correspondent

Karl Mercer reports.

Of course the mayor wasn't staying

at this hotel, nor eating at this

restaurant, but tucked off a main

road into Mumbai, these two pay

testament to a city that thrives

on trade, deals and making money,

something that the mayor

is keen to tap into.

So there is a mantra

from Sadiq Khan on this trip.

Everywhere he's been,

he has said that London

is open, but apparently not as open

as he wants it to be.

London is open for business.

His contradictions may need

a bit more practice.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

Shall we have a round of applause?

Vp

What will not is the message

he came to deliver

he came to deliver

on student visas.

The British Prime Minister,

Theresa May, got it badly

wrong with her decision to close

this route a few years ago.

A rule change five

years ago meant that

these two students, who wanted to go

to London universities, had to stay

in Mumbai.

We wanted to come to London

and work of the economy and

see how it was.

But they stopped it

because of the immigration issues,

or whatever, and we

were not allowed visas.

Five years ago, on his trip to India

as mayor, Boris Johnson tried

to stop those changes as well.

If Theresa May wouldn't listen

to Boris Johnson then,

why would she listen

to what you are saying now?

The reason why she should listen

to us now is that the fear

is that we have have been realised,

it's not simply that scaremongering

that changes around student visas

will lead to fewer students coming.

That has happened.

If Theresa May wants

to make Brexit a success,

if she wants to make sure businesses

continued to flourish and strive,

we need to have access

to talented people from around

the world, including India.

It's in her interests

to change the rules.

He wants students like

these to be able to stay

after their studies and work here.

The numbers of Indian students

coming to the capital has fallen 40%

in the last four years.

Historically and culturally,

we are connected to the UK

and especially London,

which is why I chose

London to study.

For employment UK at the moment

might not The Best.

In more sombre mood,

Sadiq Khan paid his respects

at a memorial to those

who were murdered here

by terrorists nine years ago,

when they attacked the luxury hotel

where the mayor spent his night.

Google, Bloomberg and Apple

have all announced plans

to grow their business bases

in the capital.

Now tech giant Facebook has

opened its biggest engineering hub

outside the US creating hundreds

of new jobs in London.

Tarah Welsh reports.

It's one of the fastest-growing

companies in the world and has

39 million users in the UK.

That means more than half of us

have a Facebook account.

No wonder it's got something to sing

about at its new offices in central

London, entertainers,

dancers and even the Chancellor

came along to celebrate,

reassured that even in uncertain

times, such a big company

wants to expand here.

Really excited about the fact

we are going to be looking for more

people to be coming here.

We hope a lot of those people

will be UK grown people

because London in particular

is a fantastic tech hub.

The company is hiring another

800 people in London

so by the end of next year,

there will be 2300 people working

here, making this their biggest

engineering base outside the US.

It's also opening a centre to help

start-ups but some say this

expansion has knock-on effects

for the industry.

meaning in 2014, it paid

just over £4,000 in tax.

Many people were outraged

about the tax setup of Facebook.

What would you say to them now?

Yeah, well, we make sure

that we comply with all of the tax

laws within all of the areas

that we operate.

You might have seen that last year,

we moved our revenues

that we receive from our large scale

clients in the UK into our UK office

and that is now recognised

and taxed at the right level

of corporations for profitability.

While so many of us use it,

it is likely to grow,

Tarah Welsh, BBC London News.

I'll wish you a very good night

and leave you with Lucy Martin who's

got the weather for us.

got the weather for us.

Good evening. A settled start to the

week this week with plenty of cloud

around and quite mild temperatures

to begin with before we see a spell

of wet and windy weather Wednesday

into Thursday and then things

turning colder but with more

brightness. Tonight then a fairly

cloudy story. Cloud could be thick

enough for a few spots of rain and

where we see breaks in the cloud

potential for a few patches of mist

and fog to develop. Overnight lows

of five or six. Tomorrow mainly

cloudy day. Some brighter intervals

or breaks in the cloud at times.

Temperatures again just creeping

into the double figures, a maximum

of ten degrees. Into Wednesday, we

will start to see winds spinning to

a south-westerly direction so again

largely cloudy and the cloud thick

enough to produce light rain and

drizzle. Temperatures at a maximum

around 11, perhaps 12. But later on

Wednesday into Thursday that we

start to see this wet and windy

weather. Thursday starts off with

some rain, fairly breezy before we

start to see something dryer and

brighter feeding in behind it. Also

means that Thursday we could see

temperatures reaching 14 in the

morning. By the time we get to rush

hour something a bit colder feeding

in. That will stay with us into

Friday, largely dry and bright but

temperatures back down in single

figures. That's how we stay into the

weekend, plenty of sunshine around

but feeling very cold. And it will

be breezy as well. That's it from

me.