06/04/2017 South East Today

Today's main headlines in the South East.

The Conservative MP who switched to Ukip and has now

switched back again, Mark Reckless, is described

We are live in Rochester tonight, looking back on a day of real anger

The burglars who did this to a clothes shop in Oxted

and brought its owner to the brink of tears.

We have got the CCTV coverage and saw exactly

what these hooligans have done to our private little business.

By the weekend, temperatures potentially in the lows 20s.

There has been an angry response in Medway today to the news

that the former MP for Rochester, Mark Reckless, who abandoned

the Conservatives for Ukip, is now supporting the

Mr Reckless says he is an admirer of Teresa May's performance

as Prime Minister and will vote with her party

in the seat he has taken up in the Welsh Assembly.

Peter Whittlesea has been gauging reaction in the Medway Towns.

The report include some flashing images.

Today, I am leaving the Conservative Party...

He was a self-styled principled politician, who defected from

the Conservative Party to join Ukip's "People's Army",

But as he quits Ukip in Wales, where he is an Assembly member,

his critics in Rochester are challenging him to go to

the electorate again and claim they will ensure

he is never admitted to the Conservative Party.

For me, those are actions of a Judas.

I will make very strong representation to the party,

if there is any consideration to have him back as a member,

to both Number 10 and the party chairman.

Three years ago, Reckless announced he was leaving the

Conservative Party to join Ukip, forcing a by-election.

Two months later, he won that by-election with a 2,900 majority.

It cost Medway Council over ?160,000 to stage the election.

Today, Ukip colleagues in Medway are asking him

He is an honourable man and made the point

when he was the MP here that he would let the people choose.

Now, I think that the people should choose in Wales.

But today, Mark Reckless said the proportional voting

system in the Welsh Assembly meant he could not trigger an election.

I would love to put my decision before the electorate, as I did

before, but with the proportional list system we have in Wales,

But I think many of the people who did

vote for Ukip in May are coming over to the Conservatives at all levels,

With Brexit now on its way, political commentators say

the decision by Mark Reckless is not a big surprise.

It is not so much a party any more, but a campaign -

Now they have done that, they are at a bit of a loose end.

Nigel Farage has gone off to Mississippi or California.

Mark Reckless is stuck there as a member for South East Wales.

Reckless says he will now be voting with the Conservatives in Wales

and helping the government delivered Brexit.

Sara Smith has been following this story

It certainly has not been a good couple of weeks for them. Lastly,

the only MP left the party and said they will stand as an independent.

When they were fighting the by-election, the party leader was

here saying they were going to win 10% of the seats. It did not travel

notes. However, they didn't get the referendum and one. The question now

seems to be, is there a future for the party over the referendum has

been and gone? An inquest into the death of a man

from Kent who died while taking part in a charity pram race,

has concluded that his death was the result a severe

traumatic brain injury. Francis O'Sullivan,

who was 52 and known as Titch, fell from the makeshift pram

at the event in Sutton Valence He died in hospital

the following day. Today, a coroner confirmed his

death was accidental. A former boarding school worker

from East Sussex who killed himself during a sex abuse trial has

had his conviction overturned, because of the fact that he killed

himself the day before Darren Turk, who was 54

and worked at Frewen College in Northiam as Head of Care,

was found guilty of ten offences against boys at the school

between 1996 and 2002. Appeal judges today said that,

in law, a verdict should at all once it was known

the defendent had died. CCTV footage has been released

showing the moment robbers smash their way into an independent

shop in Oxted, near Sevenoaks, using a sledgehammer

to help them steal ?30,000 Surrey Police are urging

anyone who may have seen the getaway vehicle -

a white Landrover - to contact them. Dramatic footage shows how

the audacious thieves used rope Moments later,

they smashed their way Meticulously planned,

one stands guard, while the other steals large quantities

of designer clothes. Fortunately, we have got the CCTV

coverage and saw exactly what these hooligans have done

to our private little business. They stole around ?30,000

worth of clothes from the Gas Station Jeans store

in the early hours of Wednesday. We do not think people

have the guts to do that. It is obviously not very nice,

because the damage is massive. Most of what was stolen

was premium-branded jeans. Locals say this is a quiet

and small town and something They obviously do not think

about that it is someone's That is way beyond

anything I would imagine. The shop owners pay quite a lot

in rates and it is quite sad. It will be quite hard

to recover from this, because we cannot just go out

to our suppliers and say we need more stock, because our suppliers

will say, "I'm sorry, we have sold out" and we are left

with nothing to sell. Surrey Police told us

they are investigating a number Now, the artist JM Turner has long

been associated with Margate, but much less known

are the connectoins between his rival, John Constable,

and the county of Sussex. Constable moved to Brighton

in the hope the sea air would cure his ill wife,

leaving a treasure-trove of paintings which go on display

in the city on Saturday. This is a jaw-dropping collection

by one of the godfathers It is the first time

these pictures have been brought together, to tell the story

of John Constable time in Sussex. It was a time which was personally

tragic, because it ended with the death of his wife Maria,

but also at a time when his We have been able to amass a large

percentage of the work he everything from huge

masterpieces to really detailed little sketches that he painted

out in the countryside. There is a real wow factor,

coming into this room and seeing all these works by one of the real

greats of English art. All these great pictures

were painted in Brighton You cannot just say "This

is John Constable's house." This is where John Constable lodged

with his family in Brighton, in the hope that the sea air may cure Maria

of her tuberculosis. It is still occupied by an artist,

whose fascination with Constable led him to jointly curate this

summer's exhibition. I feel it is like a

handshake across time. It is like having someone

tap on your shoulder Constable was not a fan

of the busy centre of the town. But as the exhibition reveals,

he painted what he loved in walks into the

surrounding countryside - much of which has now

disappeared under development. Constable is always thought to have

been a Suffolk painter, or a painter So, when he is in Brighton,

this is a completely new aspect of him which has

been discovered, really, because no-one knew where

he was living or what he was doing. 60 jewels from the legacy

of one of the most famous The exhibition is open

from Saturday until October at the Brighton Museum and Art

Gallery. The national weather to come,

but first, we can see what the Good evening. A glorious day for

much of today. A lot of sunshine. Over the next few days, much the

same outlook. Largely dry, with plenty of sunshine. High

temperatures over the weekend possibly getting up to about 23

Celsius. Some mist and fog overnight. That will burn away

quickly. We still have this area of high pressure. For tomorrow,

temperatures by the Aston about temperatures by the Aston about

15-14 C. Fading into Saturday, more of the scene. Clear skies overnight.

Overnight temperatures dropping to 7-8 C. To the weekend, this is the

Hello. There was some warm sunshine around today, but it's set to get

even warmer this weekend. 18 Celsius in London this afternoon. This was

the scene in Chiswick, much quieter than it was on Sunday for the boat

race. Under the cloud for example here in Cumbria, temperatures

struggled to make double figures. Through the night we're going to

hang onto a lot of cloud across north-west England, North Wales,

Northern Ireland and western Scotland, where there will be a bit

of drizzle