of the aljazeera television network in the country. prime minister benjamin netanyahu had previously described it as a "terrorist channel". aljazeera has described the decision as "criminal". china's leader xi jinping has arrived in france. he's expected to meet french president emmanuel macron tomorrow, along with the president of the european commission, ursula von der leyen. more now on the fall out from thursday's elections. the conservatives suffered significant losses in what was one of the party's worst ever performances in england's local elections — culminating with defeat in the west midlands, losing the mayoral election to labour. our political correspondent nick eardley has been crunching the numbers. let's start off with that result that came in late last night, the west midlands mayor race.

here it is. a fascinatingly close result. richard parkerfor labour, 225,000, andy street for the conservatives, 224,000. the majority, despite there being more than half a million votes, wasjust 1508, that's reflected in the percentages. 37.8 for labour, 37.5 for the conservatives. one interesting thing to point out is independents — that was critical of labour's policy on gaza. still didn't stop them winning, just. have a look at how the rates have changed. the conservative vote went right down. labour's vote went down as well but the fact the conservative vote went down by so much was what got labour over the line. there is the swing. conservative to labour, 4.6%.

that was the big result from last night but there was another really important result yesterday in the capital, london. here it is. sadiq khan comfortably beating the conservative susan hall, 275,000 votes in it this time, a lot more. this is what the swing look like and is why labour won. a 3.2% swing from the conservatives to labour. the tories were hoping they could claw back more ground in london to run it close. that didn't happen. it was pretty comfortable for sadiq khan in the end. so the big picture across england for local councils, there's only one left to declare. this is pretty much the finished picture, and it is a similar picture. labour doing well, up 185, the conservatives doing terribly, down 473, losing just under half of all the seats they were defending in thursday's local elections. you will notice the lib dems are above the conservatives in that, they put in 104.

worth just pointing out quickly as well, the greens had a really good set of results, they are up 7a. but the parties, when they are studying what this might mean for a general election, will be looking at this. conservatives down 12%, a really bad result, one that will make a lot of tory mps really nervous about what is going to happen in their constituencies at the general election. labour up 3%, not a huge amount actually, but when you speak to people in the labour party, they are delighted about where that 3% is. they say it is the areas they need to win in if they going to win the general election. as you can see the lib dems and the greens up a bit as well. politicians have been reacting to those results over the past few hours on sunday with laura kuennsberg. the former home secretary suella braverman has warned that her party could suffer a political wipeout if the prime minister doesn't change course. she added she regretted backing rishi sunak. the plan is not working. and i despair at these

terrible results. there's no spinning these results. there's no disguising the fact that these have been terrible election results for the conservatives, and they suggest that we are heading to a labour government and that fills me with horror. i love my country, i care about my party and i want us to win. and i'm urging the prime minister to change course, to, with humility, reflect on what the voters are telling us and change the plan and the way that he's communicating and leading us. if it's that dire, why not change the leader? listen, i just don't think that's a feasible prospect right now. we don't have enough time, and it's impossible for anyone new to come and change our fortunes. to be honest, there's no superman or superwoman out there who can do it. rishi sunak has been leading us for about 18 months. he's been making these decisions. these are the consequences of those decisions. he needs to own this and therefore he needs to fix it.

what does he need to do differently then? you say he must change course, but what would that look like? i think the problem is that our voters are on strike. they're not coming out to support us. we've seen that with the turnouts and we've seen that by losing conservative strongholds. when i was knocking on doors in the midlands, in london, in the south coast, conservative voters were saying to me very often, "we're lifelong voters of your party, but you're not a conservative party any more and we can't vote for you." so what does the prime minister need to do? i think he needs to show people that he really cares about some of the things that he's talked about. he needs to actually lower taxes in a way that people will feel, not tweaking around the edges. if he's serious about migration, he needs to put a cap on legal migration. he needs to take us out of the european convention on human rights. that's how you actually send the message that he's serious about stopping the boats. but where's your evidence that those kinds of changes would make any difference? because rishi sunak has cut taxes in the last few months. he has hardened the laws on migration.

he has, by some people in your party, moved too far to the right. so where's your evidence that a further move would get your voters back? the evidence is that people are not voting for what he's doing because they don't believe that we are serious about some of these issues. they don't believe that we're serious about some of these issues because they don't feel the benefits. 0n tax cuts, if he made a bold and big offer on cutting income tax or raising the personal thresholds, people would actually feel the benefits of those tax cuts. because we're tweaking and we're just tightening some of the nuts and the bolts in a complex system rather than actually making a meaningful offer to people. people are not convinced by what we're saying. but where the conservative party's put up a candidate who appeared to many people to be on the right, in london, she lost. listen, in london, we lost because of the national party's mismanagement of the process. they botched the selection process a year ago. and then, really speaking, they didn't run a good campaign. the candidate was unsupported

and that's why we lost. are there ministers in government who share your view? yes, of course. i talk to many of my colleagues who are privately demoralised and incredibly concerned about the prospects — at this rate, you know, we'll be lucky to have any conservative mps at the next election. and we need to fight and i'm not willing to give up. you know, it does me no favours to come here and say how it is and to set out the difficult situation that we're in. but i owe that honesty to my colleagues. i owe that to you and the british people who are crying out for a conservative party to vote for. except i think some of our viewers might feel this morning and some others in your party might feel, actually it's people who have been criticising the prime minister in public, people who have been playing political games and thinking about their own futures that are part of the problem here. i reject that. listen, i'm not in government. i'm not making the decisions on our policies. i'm not there putting forward

legislation to ban smoking and to vote on pedicabs. we've voted more on pedicabs and on banning smoking... i voted against it. ..than we've voted on meaningful health care reform orfixing social care or improving mental health care. we are not delivering for the people. we're not delivering the policies that people want. and it's a disgrace that we are trailing up against labour, led by keir starmer, who has the charisma of a peanut, who is overseeing a party which is a rabble of hard left which is a rabble of hard—left maniacs, who would undo brexit, who would open our borders, and who would indoctrinate our institutions and our schools with politically correct madness. we shouldn't be trailing to the degree that we are against this labour party. given all the turmoil you've had, all the changes of leader, all the noises of all the civil war, all the bellyaching, do you believe, though, that there will be viewers thinking, actually, it's the conservatives who are a rabble? and can you tell us, was there a plot being discussed to get rid of rishi sunak this week if everything was bad?

is it over? what i would say is that there's no point blaming those of us who are telling the truth for the problems that we're facing. as i said, i'm not in charge. i'm not in government. these decisions on policy and communication and campaigns are being made by rishi sunak and his team. was there a plot? i don't... you tell me. i read what you read in the papers. the papers and journalists seem to like the subject about plotting and plotters. well, it's important because it's about who's going to be the prime minister of our country. do you regret backing rishi sunak? honestly, yes, i do, because i had assurances from rishi sunak that he was going to put a cap on legal migration, that he was going to do something about the european convention on human rights, that he was going to fix this transgender ideology in our schools. he hasn't done that. i want our party to win. i want us to beat this feeble labour party. and i want to save our country from keir starmer. i'm not going to give up. i'm still going to fight.

even if it makes me unpopular, i'm going to speak the truth because that's what the 400 councillors who we lost this week deserve. that's what the authorities that we lost this week deserve. we are not going to fix this problem unless we're honest about it and we change course in reflection, with some humility, to what the voters are telling us. former home secretary suella braverman talking to laura kuenssberg. well, labour's national campaign co—ordinator, pat mcfadden, also appeared on the programme. he said the good results had given the party "a sense of belief". do you admit that the approach you took to gaza has cost you? look, we've had tremendous results overall. if you take 0ldham now, for example, which you mentioned, i think gaza was a factor, but it's not the only one. there's some hyper local issues in that local authority, which means we've lost seats there for a few years running, long before anything happened in gaza.

so i think it's a bit too easy to ascribe every difficult resultjust to one issue. there have been lots of places where there was evidence of that, where there were labour councillors who have already quit the party over the position on the middle east. and indeed there was lots of evidence, lots of anecdotal evidence, as well as things like in the birmingham mayoral contest in the west midlands of an independent candidate taking thousands of votes from you. well, you mentioned the west midlands, an absolutely fantastic result for us beyond our expectations, a real cliffhanger yesterday. not only did we have excellent local election results across the country, but winning that mayoral contest against what i admit was quite a popular incumbent who had run his whole campaign by putting as much distance as he could between himself and rishi sunak and the conservative party, an absolutely tremendous result for us in the west midlands. there is an issue, though, is there not, with people's concern

over the approach the leadership�*s taken to the israel—gaza conflict? and i want to show people and you a quote from ali milani, who's chair of the labour muslim network, who's been looking across the country. he says, "our positioning on gaza is going to have a serious electoral consequence. if i was a labour mp in bradford, birmingham, leicester or parts of london or manchester, i would be seriously concerned." what do you say to that? look, i understand why people have got strong feelings about this issue. thousands of people have been killed. there's a great impulse to help people who are in a terrible situation. that's something that we share. this is about keir starmer�*s position that he's taken. lots of people in your party have wanted him to call directly for an immediate ceasefire from the start of this conflict, and many people objected to some of his language at the beginning and are not happy with the leadership�*s approach. what do you say to them? what i would say to them is that the better life that people want for the palestinian people is something the labour

leadership shares. if we're fortunate enough to be elected at the general election, it's a very high foreign policy priority for the labour party. two things have guided us all the way through since october 7th. the first was defending israel's right to defend itself after that atrocity, and that remains part of our position. and the second is working to get a better future for the palestinian people. and both of those things will guide our position going forward. so we understand why people have got strong feelings about this and why wouldn't they when it's such a difficult and desperate situation? but, do you acknowledge that it has had electoral consequences for you already? and there are people in your party, like ali milani, who wonder, and worry, that there may be consequences for you in the general election if you don't change your approach?

i do acknowledge that in some parts of the country that was the case and there'll be some people who maybe voted labour in the past who haven't in the local elections because of this issue. and where that's the case we'll work to get people's support back. but overall, i do have to stress these were tremendous local election results, a tremendous by—election and a set of mayoral elections that went beyond the expectations that we had. do you think that you have sealed the deal? because if you look at the numbers overall, you're not cruising as labour was in 1996. if you compare the national share of the vote. it never felt like cruising at the time, i would say. but i would always say there's more work to do. i think what the results have given us this weekend is our sense of belief that sometimes the labour party hasn't had in recent years because we've become used to losing. and i think even some of our voters have thought, well, i vote labour but they never win, because we didn't win in 2010 or �*15 or �*17 or �*19,

four general elections in a row. so there is a sense of belief there, but that sense of belief should never be confused with any sense that the job is done. not a single vote has been cast in the general election. that's to come. i think there's a mood of change in the country and we have to meet it. and when people look at the labour party now, they can see a changed labour party compared to a few years ago, a labour party that is passing the essential tests of trust that the voters look for. can you be trusted with public money? with national security? we weren't passing those tests a few years ago. we're passing them today. and we are determined after this weekend to keep going and keep working to earn people's trust as we approach the general election. well, let's talk about another test that voters set for their politicians.

we've been talking to the rwandan government about the scheme for migration. now, their spokesman said to us that if, like labour, you don't like the scheme and you want to get rid of it, well, keir starmer would have to come up with another solution. so what would the solution be? well, i think the other thing that the rwanda minister may have said is that she can't say how many people it would take. and part of our problem with this scheme is that it's a huge amount of money for a very small amount of people. and in response to this problem, which voters are rightly concerned about, you have to have a plan for the whole problem, not for 1% of it. this is only ever going to be a small part of the problem. we think the money being invested in this would be better spent on an international operation to really crack down on the criminal smuggling gangs who operate in an international way. and that is exactly what this one has already been doing.

so what is your alternative? there are 40,000 people in the backlog who've come to this country without permission since the law was changed in 2023. what would labour do with those people? the rwandan scheme will only ever apply to a tiny proportion of them. if you get rid of the rwandan scheme, what would you do? to take the money that's being spent on it and spend it on a proper operation to crack down on a criminal gangs. a plan to address the whole of the problem, not 1% of it. but on day one, if you do when the next election and the scheme is up and running, on day one, would you stop the flights? well, look, i think they'll get flights off, but we've always said we didn't think this scheme would work or that this scheme would be value for money for the taxpayer. it's costing upwards of £500 million. but if it's up and running, and you may be sceptical about whether it can work, but if it's up and running and it works would a labour government, if you win, stop it on day one? well, we've said we'll divert the money to the international operation, to the policing operation that we've talked about. that's not my question.

the question is, would you stop it immediately if it's working? we don't want to continue with this scheme. we want to use the resources being spent on it to crack down on the international criminal gangs. we've been pretty clear about that all the way through. but that's not quite the same as saying you would stop it immediately on day one. is that what you're saying, and i'm missing the point? well, look, day one, you know, you do lots of things, but this is not a scheme we want to continue with. we want to take the resources being spent on it and use that to crack down on the international smuggling gangs. and just lastly on this, if people had gone in large number, or in any number, to rwanda, if the government succeeds in have if the government succeeds in getting people to be processed as asylum seekers in that east african country, if you win, would you bring those people back? i don't think we'd do that. but that's a valid question because you've objected to the scheme all along. if you think it's so wrong and it's terrible to send people there, you wouldn't bring them back? there are circumstances where they can be sent back even under the current scheme.

but, no, i don't think we do that. 0k. well, pat mcfadden, thank you very much indeed for coming in. the transport secretary, mark harper also spoke to laura. he said he was disappointed his party had lost more than 500 councillors in england, but the general election was still "all to play for". look, i'm not going to pretend that the election results over the last few days weren't disappointing. disappointing to lose hardworking local councillors. i was particularly disappointed by the nail biting narrow result yesterday in the west midlands. as transport secretary, i've worked very closely with andy street. you cancelled his leg of hs2 which he didn't want you to do. he's a fantastic mayor. no, look, that illustrates, i think, something really important about the prime minister. he's interested in taking difficult decisions that might not be popular with everyone, but that are in the long—term interests of the country... they weren't in the long—term interests of andy street. ..and are the right decision. well, i disagree. every single penny of the money we save from cancelling the second phase of hs2 is being

reinvested in transport. and i was in the west midlands just a few weeks ago with andy street for the launch of a £1.75 billion midlands rail hub, improving the connectivity of birmingham. but the point here, secretary of state, is that it's notjust about what happened in the last couple of days, which, in many places for you, is dire. you got hammered in the local council elections last year as well. you've lost seven by—elections under rishi sunak. and if we can show you the roll—call and show this to our viewers as well, the roll call of councils that you lost, basildon, dorset to the lib dems, north east lincolnshire, nuneaton, redditch. these are places where labour is salivating at the prospect of taking your mp5. you've been losing under rishi sunak time and again. don't you think you need to change something? look, i'm not going to pretend they weren't disappointing results, always disappointing. i was out campaigning with lots of people across the country and it's always disappointing when you lose hardworking conservatives... but the point here is,

doesn't this give you evidence that you need to do something differently? and if you don't do anything differently and you just say, "stick to the plan, stick to the plan," aren't you sticking your fingers in your ears when the electorate is telling you time and again they are not impressed? no, look, i think the message, you've covered it on your piece there, the message from the election success in the tees valley was about having a plan, delivering on the plan. and i think at the moment we've made a lot of progress on those priorities i was talking about, you know, inflation is down to just over 3% from the 11%. but the point there is ben houchen in tees valley seems to have been able to communicate to his voters that he's able to achieve things. rishi sunak does not seem able to communicate to voters that he's achieving the things you claim. well... i want to put these to you. these are comments from some of your own council leaders who've lost. andrewjefferies, former council leader of thurrock council. he said people were unhappy with the government. they didn't like the message

that was coming out the plan. so that's one of your own side who lost this week. he's saying they don't like the national plan. another, andrew baggott, who was leader of basildon council, he said there's a real immense dissatisfaction with people on the ground. what do you say to them? you'rejust not going to change anything? what i would say is the plan is about delivering. the plan is working, but we haven't got all the way so, take inflation. it was 11% when the prime minister became prime minister. it's now down to 3.1. it's not all the way down to the bank of england's target of two when they'll start being able to cut interest rates, which will make a huge difference to hardworking families. we've done part of the plan on dealing with illegal migration. it's down by 30%, year on year, at a time the number of illegal migrants coming to the european union was up. but we haven't completed that plan yet. we've got the rwanda legislation through parliament, opposed every step of the way by the labour party and the liberal democrats who voted

against it hundreds of times. now we have it on the books. we can now get the flights going to rwanda, a steady rhythm of flights, that will change the incentives there. it will have a deterrent effect. and we'll continue delivering on that policy. so after these results, mark harper, and people will know and appreciate that you're a loyal minister, but after these results, you're not going to change anything? you're just going to stick to the plan, to use your phrase? well, we have a plan and the plan is working. but voters are telling you they don't like it. but we're not all the way through yet. you've got to actually see — i think people want to see delivery, right? so they want to see inflation continue to come down. they want to see the boats stop. they want to see, for example, nhs waiting lists continue to fall. we've made a lot of progress on that, but we're not all of the way there yet. and i think people need to see the delivery of that plan. that was mark harper speaking to laura kuenssberg.

with just under 24 hours to go until nominations close to replace humza yousaf as leader for the scottish national party — there are suggestions of a late entry to the race. at the momentjohn swinney, the former deputy first minister and party leader, is the only person officially in the running, but veteran party activist — graeme mccormack says he believes he can garner enough nominations by tomorrow's deadline. 0ur reporter in glasgow ben philip explains how serious of a challenge this could be. it was very unexpected. it was widely expected that john swinney would be unopposed in the contest to replace humza yousaf, who resigned on monday. technically, the deadline for leadership nominations is tomorrow at midday, and as the only current contender, it was expected thatjohn swinney would become the next snp leader and seventh first minister of scotland. but there are now reports that graeme mccormick, a veteran activist, believes he will have enough nominations before then. he's someone who's previously been openly critical of the snp scottish government, including about its independence strategy.

now, it's important to note too that if mr mccormick wants to win a contest, he could only become party leader. he can't become the first minister of scotland because he isn't an msp. now, john swinney was asked about this potential challenge today. he said he would respect any democratic process, but did argue that a contest could potentially delay the party from rebuilding. but in terms of what's next, if a contest does happen, it will trigger a leadership battle, which could go on until the end of may. the 27th of may is the cutoff for the snp to choose its next leader. but if there isn't a contest, john swinney could be in the top job in the coming days. now it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. hello there. we've got some pretty big contrasts in weather to take

you through the rest of this afternoon. for parts of the country, it will stay cloudy with a threat of rain — for example, here in southwest england. other places, though, quite a contrast. we'll have bright skies, plenty of sunshine, and it will become warm, particularly in parts of the midlands. the satellite picture tells the story quite nicely, with a beautiful curl of cloud down towards the southwest. that's an area of low pressure. band of rain working into southwest england. showers running ahead of that. then we get a slice of sunshine. we've got cloudy skies with us again, affecting scotland, northern ireland and the far north of england. there will be showers, too. the showers quite frequent this afternoon for east scotland. we've got more general rain for parts of cornwall, devon and probably dorset. showers running into southern wales and central southern england. now, where it stays cloudy, temperatures on the cool side — 12—15 degrees — nothing special about that. but where the sunshine comes out across parts of wales, the midlands, east anglia, even south east england, temperatures reaching the high teens, perhaps even the low 20s. and that will feel warm. 0vernight tonight it stays cloudy for northern areas of the country

with a few more patches of rain around. temperatures 8—10 degrees for the most part. but in the coolest parts of the countryside, wales, midlands, northern england, could see temperatures as low as four. tomorrow, well, broadly speaking, we're looking at a showery day. those showers really building into the afternoon, and this time, the shower is going to be quite a bit more widespread, but it'll also be a lot heavier. yeah, there is a chance of seeing some thunderstorms as we go through monday afternoon, with hefty downpours. probably the best of the sunshine, again affecting parts of the midlands, east anglia and northern england. otherwise a fair bit of cloud knocking around. we start to see something of a change in the weather pattern though, through tuesday and wednesday, as an area of high pressure builds in. not the strongest high — there will be weather systems coming around the top side of that, but nevertheless it will do. and for tuesday, should be more in the way of dry weather. some spells of sunshine around, just a few showers across western areas. a bit of high cloud in the sky will make the sunshine hazy at times. but those temperatures starting to come up a little bit. 16 for belfast. england and wales —

high teens to low 20s in more areas. and that trend of warming weather continues really through the rest of the week ahead. there will be a lot of dry weather. the exception, scotland, where there could be a bit of rain at times, but even here, it should start to feel warmer as the week goes by.

live from london, this is bbc news. israel and hamas blame each other for the failure to agree a ceasefire in gaza, as talks continue in cairo. israeli police raid thejerusalem office of aljazeera, after the government moved to shut down the news network's operations inside israel. despite a crushing election defeat, prime minister rishi sunak vows to stick to his plan in government, but some in his party voice serious concerns. we are, at this rate, we will be lucky to have

any conservative mps at the next election. and xijinping arrives in france on his first visit to europe in five years. hello, i'm kylie pentelow. welcome to the programme. the israeli prime minister and the hamas leader have blamed each other for the failure so far to achieve a breakthrough in talks in cairo on a ceasefire in gaza and the release of israeli hostages. one of the crossings used to bring aid into gaza, kerem shalom, has been closed by the israeli military after rockets were fired by hamas. talks to secure a ceasefire and release some of the hostages today have now ended. with all the latest from jerusalem, here's frank gardner. in israel, the protests are getting louder. last night, thousands turned out to demand a ceasefire deal to secure

the release of scores of hostages still held in gaza.