04/12/2017 London News

Minister is said to be close to a

deal with the EU that

Good afternoon, I'm Asad Ahmad.

In a year which has seen

four terrorist attacks

in London, this afternoon,

personnel from the emergency

services who showed "exceptional

bravery" at the time

are being recognised

at the Guildhall.

Members of the public

will also receive awards

for the way they reacted,

and the Metropolitan

Police Commissioner

Cressida Dick has been

sharing her thoughts with us.

It's been a terrible year.

There's no other way to describe it.

And so many people have

lost their lives and other people

have had their lives

turned upside down.

As we are commending these

colleagues and members

of the public this afternoon,

we'll be thinking about them,

but I think we'll also be very proud

and we will be recognising that

actually, London came together right

at the time of those attacks

and ordinary Londoners showed

extraordinary courage

and resilience.

And London has carried on.

We've carried on with

all our events, carried

on with our business,

carried on with our shopping,

carried on with our tourism.

And the public are immensely

supportive of their police

so I'm very proud.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner

Cressida Dick speaking to us

earlier.

Well, our reporter Chris Rogers has

been speaking to one

of recipients of the awards,

who'll be at the Guildhall

this afternoon.

I got the call to London Bridge.

It was given as a road traffic

collision at the time.

Erm, I arrived and then, erm,

got told it was a major incident.

I took a handover from an advanced

paramedic on scene very quickly.

We then heard gunfire.

I then took cover.

As soon as the gunfire had finished,

I come back out and my

training just kicked in.

I was very, very nervous.

Erm, there's no way I'm

going to deny that.

But the training does kick

in and it was, to me,

I need to get as many patients out

of this area and into hospital

as soon as I possibly could.

Do you feel like a hero or do

you feel like someone who just

did his job that day?

I don't feel a hero at all,

I'll be quite honest with you.

I do feel like I was

just doing my job.

There's a lot of people behind us.

You know, it is a big, big team.

The London Ambulance Service,

the police services and members

of the public, all the Londoners

that helped us on that

evening was unbelievable.

You know, without any of them,

this wouldn't have happened.

The control room staff,

the people on the road, everybody,

everybody just mucked in,

one big team and we just made it.

Did you get a sense that day

that it was very much the emergency

services and public coming together?

Definitely, definitely.

Without the public,

while I was waiting for my staff

to arrive, without the public,

I wouldn't have been able to do

or save as many people

as we could, I don't think.

A very humble Andy Beasley, there,

speaking to Chris Rogers.

A man has died after being hit

by a marked police car

on an emergency call in north

London.

It happened on Seven Sisters Road,

near the junction with Elizabeth

Road, in Haringey yesterday evening.

Officers in the vehicle gave

first aid but were unable

to save the man aged in his 40s.

The Metropolitan Police Directorate

of Professional Standards

and the Independent Police

Complaints Commission

will investigate.

Facebook's biggest engineering hub

outside the US has opened

just off Oxford Street,

creating hundreds of new jobs.

It comes exactly a decade

after the social media company

opened its first office in London.

Tarah Welsh has been

taking a look around.

Apparently, there's something to

sing about at these brand-new

offices in central London. Dancers

and entertainers brought in to

Facebook HQ to celebrate its latest

investment in the UK. Even the

Chancellor turned up. His office has

promised to crack down on companies

that avoid paying tax in the UK. In

2014, Facebook was criticised after

it transpired it paid just over

£4000 in tax by putting UK sales

through its island office. 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 received from our

client in the UK into our UK office

and that is now recognised and taxed

as corporations with proper account

ability. Our focus here is about

making sure we continue to grow and

invest. For Londoners to have a new

square, to hear confident in the

city and the sector, at which London

excels, we think is a great message.

The company is hiring another 800

people in London so by the end of

next year, there will be 2300 people

working here. It makes this this

biggest engineering base outside the

US. -- their biggest. What is it

like to work here? Meals are free,

there's plenty of treats, including

a bus full of sweets. But they say

that is just a small part of the

culture here.

I was out on maternity

leave for seven months and I was

able to come back to an environment

that is very flexible, very

supportive, both internally from my

manager and my team and so on but

also kind of the benefits that we

get.

Today's movie is being hailed

as good news for both the government

and the mayor, welcoming this global

giant that did not even exist 15

years ago. Tarah Welsh, BBC London

News.

The Mayor of London has blamed

the government and singled out

the Prime Minister for making it

difficult for Indian nationals

to work and study in Britain.

He was speaking during a visit

to Mumbai, where he met leading

Indian business representatives,

making it clear he wanted talented

young people to come to London.

He explained his thoughts

and criticism of Theresa May

to our political correspondent

Karl Mercer.

One of the things that is clear

to me when I speak to really

talented Indians, chief executives,

investors, innovators but also

students, is they love London,

they love the UK but find it

incredibly hard to do business

in London and incredibly hard

to come to our top universities.

What I'm saying today is we can't

on the one hand encourage

Indians to trade with us,

to do business with us

and on the other hand,

make it so difficult

for entrepreneurs and students

to come to London.

And it was made difficult

by the current Prime Minister

when she was Home Secretary.

She changed the rules when it comes

to students in particular.

Well, Theresa May made a huge

mistake, a huge error of judgment

in 2012 when she stopped

the post-study work visa.

She made a huge error

when she included students

on the immigration cap.

What I am saying to the government

is they've got to do

a number of things.

They've got to remove students

from the immigration cap.

We need to begin a new

post-study work visa.

We've also got to make it far easier

for entrepreneurs who want to come

to London to invest and do business

to do so.

Sadiq Khan, the mayor London,

speaking to our political

correspondent, Karl Mercer.

The RSPCA is aiming to get

this totally blind cat

and her inseparable,

earless son re-homed

in time for Christmas.

They were rescued in September

after being abandoned.

They're called Ross and Rachel.

They're looking for a good home.

Now let's check on the

weather with Kate.

Good afternoon.

Well, it's been quite a quiet

day of weather so far.

We started with a bit of sunshine,

lots of blue sky around

first thing this morning.

A bit more cloud has been rolling

in since then but we're

still getting some bright spells

this afternoon and we will still see

a little bit of sunshine

here and there through the cloud.

So again, we continue

in quite a quiet way.

The wind is very

light this afternoon.

The temperature again

not too cold, really,

nine or ten Celsius as a maximum.

As we head into the evening,

we are hanging onto the cloud,

patchy cloud, though,

so we could see it break

from time to time.

Where it does break,

we run the risk of maybe a bit

of mist developing and maybe fog

by dawn and also under the clear

spells, the temperature dropping

that little bit further.

But for most of us,

we are going to be stuck under this

cloud and that means

the temperatures not dropping

down especially far.

Five or six Celsius as a minimum.

So a rather cloudy start tomorrow,

the cloud thick enough to produce

a spot of rain here and there but it

does stay predominantly dry.

More bright spells as opposed

to sunny spells tomorrow

but the temperature remains similar,

nine or ten Celsius

by the end of the afternoon.

On Wednesday, the wind

will really start to pick up.

A little bit unsettled with a band

of rain as a cold front starts

to move south and that introduces

this cold air.

By the end of Thursday, things

are going to feel quite bitter.

We've also got a bit of a breeze

mixed in there as well

so the temperature gradually

dropping as we head towards the end

of the week and then

by the time we get to Friday,

it is going to feel pretty chilly,

especially compared

to the next few days.

That's it.

Riz will be here with our next

news on BBC One at 6.30.

And there's plenty more

on our Facebook page.

Have a good afternoon.