19/12/2017 London News

Join me now on BBC Two.

That's Newsnight with Emily.

Good evening and welcome to BBC

London News with me,

Victoria Hollins.

The City of London contributes tens

of billions of pounds each

year to the Treasury,

but there'll be "no place"

for our financial sector

in any Brexit trade deal.

That's the message from the EU's

chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.

The Government wants

to secure new financial

trading terms with Europe,

but what happens if a deal

cannot be reached?

Chris Rogers has been to find out.

London is the world's number one

global financial dealer.

More than half a million

people are employed

in the financial sector.

The long-held fears that special

trading privileges and access to EU

customers will be taken from London

post-Brexit were confirmed again

by the EU's chief Brexit

negotiator, Michel Barnier.

He told the Guardian

newspaper the City can't be

an exception to the rule.

He said the outcome

was the consequence of the red

lines that the British

have chosen themselves.

In leaving the single

market they will lose

the so-called financial services

passport, he warned.

We can be forgiven for not knowing

exactly what goes on in the City

but it has a massive impact on every

single one of us.

The British economy relies

heavily on it and there

is an ecosystem here.

There are lots of industries feeding

off the financial sector.

Even within it you have technology,

human resources, and then

surrounding the financial sector

you have the coffee shop owners,

the tailors, the watchmakers,

the shoe shiners, the pharmacists,

the restaurants, the cafes.

They all rely on the

success of the City.

So what about the financial firms

caught up in the middle of the war

of words between Barnier

and the government?

This man is pro-Brexit.

These sides are both posturing

right now, us included,

but we have got to remember,

I know it feels like we've been

having Brexit forever

but we are still in the foothills

of the negotiating process.

We're not going to have

an agreed deal until 2019.

These things are almost

always reached in the 59th

minute of the 11th hour.

He can say right now, no, no, no.

In the end I'm pretty sure

the answer will be yes.

While some firms are

holding their nerve,

others are making contingency

plans to quit.

But the think tank Open Europe said

the EU has no choice.

The fact that the UK has a big

surplus in those financial services

is because we have lots of customers

elsewhere in the EU and I think most

of the EU recognises that that hub

cannot be replicated elsewhere

in the EU, either in Frankfurt,

Luxembourg, Amsterdam, wherever.

So many people in the EU

will want to access those services

in London or the rest of the UK.

But there is little sign

of seasonal goodwill.

City UK, which lobbies

for financial firms,

today called Michel Barnier Scrooge.

And in its first proper

Brexit Cabinet meeting,

the government has agreed to demand

a bespoke deal from the EU.

Chris Rogers, BBC London News.

Earlier I spoke to the BBC's

Adam Flemming in Brussels,

and asked him how significant

this announcement is.

These comments are significant

because Michel Barnier

is the EU's chief negotiator,

the man entrusted by EU leaders

to deliver the final Brexit deal

between the UK and the EU.

But they are not surprising

because Michel Barnier

is following instructions given

to him by the EU leaders.

They have been clear throughout

the Brexit process that the deal

the UK gets in the end is contingent

on how willing the UK is to stick

to the EU's rules and the EU's

way of doing things.

Michel Barnier has said in several

places for several days

now that the fact the UK is sticking

to its red lines of no membership

of the single market,

no membership of the Customs Union

and no jurisdiction

of the European Court of Justice,

means that the best the EU

is willing to offer is a trade

deal along the lines

of the one that Canada got,

which does not include financial

services, so crucial to the London

economy as we all know.

What is happening here

is that the EU is waiting for the UK

government to discuss amongst itself

about how it wants that

relationship to operate.

And only then, at the next summit

of EU leaders in March,

will the EU make its offer more

clear and more detailed.

So expect this issue to rumble

on for a few months yet.

As we've been hearing,

the ex-boyfriend of reality TV star

Ferne McCann has been jailed for 20

years after carrying out a brutal

acid attack in a packed

East London nightclub.

16 people were seriously injured,

most with chemical burns,

when Arthur Collins hurled

the liquid over a crowd on the dance

floor of the Mangle club in Dalston.

Three people were

temporarily blinded.

Well, since the 25-year-old

carried out his attack,

there have been growing calls

for nightclubs to tighten

up their security measures.

Some venues in the capital have

already taken steps to prevent acid

being brought into their premises,

as the number of incidents involving

a corrosive substance

continues to rise in London.

Caroline Davies is here with more.

Caroline, I understand that judge

talked about this increase?

He did. We can take a look at the

scale of this issue. The judge said

that in 2016 there were nearly 400

corrosive attacks but this year we

had already passed the total of the

previous year by the time we reached

October, 424 from January until

October which is obviously a rise

but I should stress that these

attacks are relatively rare even

though they are taken seriously.

How

have nightclubs reacted?

They

clearly want their customers to be

safe and they are a safe place to be

and we spoke to one club who said

they had taken police advice about

what to do. They do not allow liquid

into the club so your bottle of

water would have to be thrown away

before coming in but they are

testing for personal use and

colognes and antibacterial gel is so

if you have those in your bag you

will be asked to test them on this

patch of your skin to prove they are

safe so they are taking this

seriously. We also spoke to people

who have great experience on

survivors and one charity we spoke

to said they hope the law gets

toughened up.

The Home Secretary made a series

of announcements over the last

three or four months.

I'm certainly expecting and hoping

that legislation around control

of sale of acid and also legislation

around young men particularly

caught with acid.

What is actually being done? The

Home Secretary launched a

consultation which included acid in

October. That is closed and they are

looking at results so I would not be

surprised if we hear more about acid

and the law surrounding it in the

near future.

Thank you very much.

An investigation is underway

in West London after two young boys

were found unconscious

at an address in Perivale.

Police were called to a property

on Bilton Road this afternoon.

They found a six-year-old

in a critical condition.

He, along with a four-year-old,

were taken to hospital.

No arrests have been made.

The much awaited Crossrail

is in its final stages and will open

to the public in 12 months' time.

Today we got some indication

of how much it will cost

to use the Elizabeth Line.

Meanwhile there are positive noises

about London's next big

infrastructure project,

Crossrail 2.

More from our Transport

Correspondent, Tom Edwards.

These huge platforms

are at Farringdon Crossrail station.

In a year, trains will be

running through here.

Today news that in central London

fares on the Elizabeth Line will be

the same as the Tube.

In terms of where it

covers normal TfL zones,

it will be the same fare structure.

We recognise this will take

some business from other

lines, of course it will.

But we also know that people perhaps

who haven't used Central Line

or Jubilee Line in the last few

years because they perceive them

to be very busy will come back

to using the underground.

That is about supporting

London's continued growth.

The Elizabeth Line will initially

start in three sections.

And already there are plans

for the next big infrastructure

project, Crossrail 2.

The cost is £30 billion.

The government wants TfL to raise

half of that up front,

through business rates,

councils and developers.

City Hall admits the funding

is a big challenge.

We are absolutely confident

from the figures we have already

submitted that London can fund half

of the capital programme

that we would need for Crossrail 2.

It's not easy but we can do it.

The payback, both in terms

of what comes to Transport

for London and the Treasury,

but to London's businesses and

Londoners themselves, is fantastic.

Crossrail 2 will run from south-west

London and Surrey through

the capital to Hertfordshire.

Today the government

seemed positive.

Do you think it will happen?

Yes, I believe it will.

They are specific challenges

across the network in

London that still remain.

Crossrail 2 has the ability

to solve a number of them.

We need to ensure that Crossrail 2

tackles the challenges that most

need to be tackled here in London.

As this huge engineering project

enters its final stages,

to match London's growth,

the capital is already looking

at new infrastructure.

The challenge, as it was initially

on Crossrail, is funding.

Tom Edwards, BBC London News.

That's it for now from me, but let's

find out what the weather's up

to with Elizabeth Rizzini.

We had a very pretty, fiery sunset

today which you might have seen and

we started this morning with some

fog and frost. No such problems

tonight, it will be very mild and we

might have a bit of hill fog but 20

of cloud into tomorrow morning. --

plenty of cloud. It should stay mild

for the rest of the week, dry with

some drizzle, possibly some rain on

Wednesday night and Thursday morning

and plenty of cloud and it will feel

quite grotty and great for much of

the week. Overnight tonight, the

milder air comes in from the West so

weak start tomorrow with rising

temperatures, between six and eight

Celsius, a big difference from this

morning and tomorrow, you will not

see the colours changing that much

because it will stay grey and cloudy

for much of the date but it will be

mild with temperatures up to ten or

11 Celsius. It will stay that way

for the rest of the week, mostly dry