07/03/2017 South Today

Arsenal in Europe. Natalie thank you very much again at the Emirates

Stadium. Natalie Hello, good evening,

I'm Tom Hepworth. What did go on behind closed

doors at Surrey Council? Tonight the government's

responded to a secret And the thugs who attacked a couple

on a train who'd been Detectives say they were set

upon just for being gay. The Government has repeated

its message tonight that there was no special deal

for Surrey County Council and that the authority will not

receive any extra funding. It comes after we revealed a secret

recording of Surrey's Conservative council leader David Hodge

describing the negotiations he had with government ministers prior

to calling off the referendum on a 15 percent

council tax increase. Labour called it "a sweetheart deal"

- Downing street claim But in a meeting with his own

councillors Mr Hodge tells them he has written assurances

and recordings of Our Political Editor Peter Henley

has this exclusive report. Surrey Conservatives

were in rebellious mood when they met to decide their budget

last month, threatening to put up council tax by 15% to cover

rising costs and cuts Then suddenly they found

they did not need so much, leaked texts revealed

that the leader David Hodge had been The Prime Minister denied this

when the Labour leader ambushed her during Prime Minister's

Questions. How much did the government offer

Surrey to kill this off? I made clear to the right

honourable gentleman, what has been made available

to every council which is Now however BBC South has obtained

a recording of the meeting at which the Surrey leader tried

to assure his councillors that the government

had heard their pleas. I want an assurance

that they will not put what I'm Then he spells out their

high-level contacts. A series of conversations took place

with the Secretary of State for Local Government in his car

outside Number 10 Downing Street, looking for assurances,

looking for clarification, looking for help, basically of how

we could stop a referendum. Finally he talks about the need

to call this a gentleman's agreement although he says he has recordings

and something in writing. What I call a gentleman's agreement,

that the Conservative are not honoured, we will have

to revisit this in nine months or a year's time and if we do,

let me assure you, you will have to drag me kicking and screaming not

to go for a referendum next year. He concludes saying if extra cash

is not found for next year, "you will have to drag me kicking

and screaming from calling A little earlier I asked Peter how

Councillor David Hodge responded He is still hoping that the

Chancellor will announce extra money for Syria and he says every leader

if they are good at their job will always have these conversations to

try and get a better deal. He talks about the word deal, it is the one

thing he was telling his councillors that they must not tell people and I

asked him if he was angry that this seemed to have been leaked and he

said I am a politician, I do not get annoyed by Labour are very annoyed

and they say that this proves that someone is not

telling the truth. What we know is that David Hodge was clear that the

deal was done and he said that to his group. We note that the

Chancellor according to him was in on the deal and we know there is at

least something in writing as a result of this transcript. In

Surrey, the Liberal Democrat opposition are most concerned that

they do not know the state of finances for the county. The leader

of the council refers to a referendum next year and a council

tax referendum has been debated in Surrey recently and there was huge

opposition to a council tax referendum and a large increase in

council tax of 15% and I am surprised and horrified that the

leader of the council is still talking about this. And tonight we

have heard from the Department for Communities and Local Government

headed by Sajid Javid and they have slapped down David Hodge quite hard,

to imply that there was a special deal for Surrey, they said, is

simply untrue. We will find out if they are still getting their money

or not. What is the chance that the Chancellor might announce extra

funding for local government in the budget tomorrow? Local government

are crying out for it for social care and I would be surprised if

there was not money for some people and people

will cry it is unfair but there will be money for schools, we are looking

at that possibly coming to the south and for smoothing business rates as

well. Some of that is about local authority finance and it is very

much in the focus at the moment. A gay couple who were viciously

attacked by a gang of men on a train from Reading say they're now afraid,

to travel by rail. It happened on Valentine's Day, with

horrified passengers calling police. Images have now been released

of the men police want to speak to. They knocked these two teeth down

here out and I had a lot of bruising and cuts all around my face

and you had a lot of bruising around Phil and his boyfriend, Spinek,

had fallen asleep on a train home after celebrating Valentine's Day

in Reading when they were set One guy came up and said something

nasty to us and I just said, leave I think they didn't

like me lying on Spinek. I was laid over him and I think

that is what caused the issue. Police have now released

these images of four men they want to speak to in connection

with the incident. They got off the train

at Ealing Broadway moments At the moment I am just a bit scared

to go out in the evening. I try to look where I am

sitting and who is coming. So many things in the world,

bad things happening, why people are picking on people

because of their sexuality, I'm glad police have those images,

because it makes people aware of what they look like in case

they see them, contact the police. In the championship Reading

held top of the table Our sports editor Tony Husband

is there for us now, It was not a bad game but not a

classic. It was goalless, Reading's biggest home crowd of the season.

They saw drama in the first minute when Lewis Grabban and headed just

wide and then drama right at the finale when Gareth McCleary hit the

woodwork with virtually the last woodwork with virtually the last

kick of the game, in between that, Newcastle showed why they are top of

the league, they had a number of chances, but I think jab stamp will

be pleased with the result. A big win tonight for a Brighton after two

successive defeats, they needed three points, they got them at

Rotherham. A boost to Albion's automatic promotion hopes but it

could have been more. Two players were denied in the first half but

after the break, the ball was driven past Lewis Price to make it 1-0 and

then an excellent strike made it two with ten minutes remaining. Vital

points for the seagulls. A look at the Championship table shows the

Brighton have close the gap on Newcastle, Huddersfield won this

evening keeping up the pressure and leaf strewn with Fulham and Reading

have a 7-point buffer down to seventh place. Good news from League

2, Portsmouth are finally into the top three and the automatic

promotion places. They won at Crawley. After a battle against

crew-macro, Portsmouth looked every inch the promotion candidates this

evening. They had to be patient to break the deadlock which came in the

second half after all and Dora's penalty was saved, Burgess headed in

the corner. The seem to be only one winner from the corner and there

that made the game safe with a strike from the edge of the box 19

minutes from the end. That could be a really significant

night in the League 2 promotion race, a victory for Portsmouth and

we will have goals and reaction from all these matches in tomorrow night

's programme. Back to you. That's all from the South Today

news team this evening. We're back tomorrow with bulletins

in BBC Breakfast and there's more Here is our regional

weather forecast... It is looking like it could be a wet

Wednesday. It is and that wet weather is with us already working

its way in from the worst continuing on its journey east overnight

tonight. Some drizzle but heavier pulses as it works its way right

across our patch. Temperature wise, lows of six or seven, but those

temperatures will begin to climb as we head towards dawn so by the time

we wake up first thing on weapons to morning, perhaps nine or 10 degrees

to get the day started. Albeit wet and one at times, we will see

breaks in the wet weather, it will tend to come and go through the

course of the day, nor other parts of the region faring best, possibly

a glimmer or two of rain on Saturday. The national

picture now from Nick Miller. It looks like next week high

pressure will become a player again in our weather, settling things down

for some of us for a time but until then it is low-pressure, rain moving

across the UK overnight but not wet all the time. Many of us at a fine

day today, this was at you from West Yorkshire and Yorkshire and northern

England and Northern Ireland will farewell tomorrow, after this

frontal system has pushed on through the UK with rain. But as it does, it

introduces milder air so for the rest of the week we will have

temperatures widely into double figures. Back to the here and now

and that rain which has been like an