And the list signing the pro-European letter - at least in part orchestrated by Number 10 - are certainly a hefty bunch.
But, a few health warnings.
First, many of the people who have signed have long been public advocates of Britain remaining in the EU - from Sir Roger Carr of BAE, to Iain Conn of Centrica, Dame Carolyn McCall of easyJet and Bob Dudley of BP.
Second, some of the business leaders named say that although Britain would be better off economically in the EU, the UK is still a significant market and investment levels would remain high whatever the outcome of the referendum.
Paul Polman, the chief executive of Unilever and one of signatories, told me that directly when I interviewed him a few weeks ago.
The UK is the world's fifth largest economy with a 60-million strong population.
As such, it matters.
Third, many smaller businesses are much more sceptical about the advantages or otherwise of the UK's membership of the EU.
A large number do not export to the rest of Europe and their only experience of Brussels is directives on employment rights which some say are over-burdensome.
The British Chambers of Commerce represents many such businesses - and it has announced it will not be campaigning for either side in the referendum as "very real divisions" exist in the business community.
Actually, the most intriguing thing about this letter are the signatures of two banking executives few members of the general public will have heard of - Richard Gnodde and Michael Sherwood of Goldman Sachs.
Neither court the limelight but they are significant figures in the City, where the Wall Street giant employs several thousand staff and bases its European headquarters.
My banking sources agree that it is pretty unusual for their names to appear on a letter of this type.
In fact, it is the first time I believe they have done so.
It comes after Goldman Sachs pledged a large donation to the Stronger in Europe campaign.
The signal they are sending?
That the large US banks, based in London, are very concerned about Brexit and their ability to operate across the EU if it happens.
If the UK does leave, then some of their business divisions are likely to move to the continental financial centres of Frankfurt and Paris.
For those who support Brexit that might not matter much - some campaigners have dismissed them as part of the "elite establishment".
But for the City's position as a global financial centre, American banks starting to move away, even if not lock, stock and barrel, would be a significant moment.
For politicians supporting Britain remaining in the European Union, the blessing of business leaders is seen as a positive step.


An Independent Irish parliamentarian has used the biblical story of Noah's Ark to support his views on climate change.

Earlier this year, Danny Healy-Rae denied there was a human impact on climate change.
He told the DÃ¡il (Irish parliament) "God above" controlled the weather.
In an interview for Hot Press magazine he said "facts" such as the Ice Age and Noah's Ark supported his views.
In the Old Testament's Book of Genesis, Noah receives an apocalyptic warning from God about a massive flood, and builds a huge wooden boat to save his family and a selection of the world's animals.
"I'm basing my views on facts," he said.
"The facts are there and history proves it.
"We had the Ice Age. We had Noah's Ark. We had all those stories.
Mr Healy-Rae, a Kerry TD, added: "There were some centuries when the country was very hot and warm and then there were different centuries with so much rain and cold. So, those are facts."
During a debate on the issue in May, Mr Healy-Rae denied the burning of fossil fuel was the main cause of global warming.
Scientists believe gases released from industry and agriculture are adding to the climate change.
Human activities such as burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming.


Nathan Cleverly's light-heavyweight bout against Andrzej Fonfara will be held in Chicago on 16 October.

Polish fighter Fonfara, who is based in the American city, has a 27-3 record with 16 knockouts.
Welshman, 28, Cleverly has decided to face the 27-year-old rather than WBA champion Juergen Braehmer.
"This is a another big opportunity for me. I've had two good performances in the States but this one is on a big platform," he told BBC Radio Wales.
"It's probably the biggest fight of my life, but I'm confident. Preparations have gone well and it's just a matter now of performing.
"There's no reason for me not to perform - I'm ready, I'm hungry, I'm firing and ready to showcase against Andrzej Fonfara."
Cleverly, a former WBO light-heavyweight lost to Tony Bellew at cruiserweight in November 2014 but made his comeback at light-heavyweight with a 24-second stoppage of Czech journeyman Tomas Man last May.
Fonfara's last fight was a nine-round stoppage of former middleweight world champion Chavez Jr.
"I'm excited to return to my hometown of Chicago on this big fight night against a world-class fighter like Nathan Cleverly," said Fonfara, who will be fighting at the city's UIC Pavilion for the 14th time.
"This will be a tough fight for both of us. Cleverly is a solid fighter and it's no fluke that he was a world champion and that he defended his belt so many times."


Madame Tussauds wax figures of King Henry VIII and Tom Thumb, a 14ft (4m) polar bear and five Victorian shops, are to be auctioned in Wiltshire.

The 1,100-lot sale is the entire contents of the Yesterday's World attraction in Great Yarmouth, which closed at the beginning of November.
Expected to fetch up to Â£300,000, the first lot is to go under the hammer at Chippenham Auction Rooms on Saturday.
Auctioneer Richard Edwards, said it was a "real cornucopia" of items.
Dedicated to the Victorian era and early 20th Century, the museum opened in 2007.
However, despite "substantial investment" in the attraction and efforts to sell it as a "going concern" they were forced to close, directors said.
The first sale on Saturday will see five complete heritage style shops, including an ironmongers and grocers, go under the hammer.
"We haven't seen anything like this come on to the market for many years - it's a huge job," said Mr Edwards.
"But our aim is to ensure that as many of the items as possible remain on public display somewhere or go to collectors or restorers who will really value them."
In the new year, a full-size Victorian carousel, a number of items owned by Queen Victoria and the waxworks will be among the 150,000 other "nostalgia exhibits" to go under the hammer.
"We've had stacks of interest, lots of interest from Australia and a big museum in the UK - which I can't name," said Tora Edwards, who also helps run the auction rooms.
"Waxworks are not something we've sold before but Henry VIII and all his wives will go as one lot.  We're not going to divorce them," she added.


Donald Trump's virtual victory in the race for the US Republican presidential nomination, following his win in Indiana and rival Ted Cruz's exit, has made headlines around the world.

Many newspapers say there are now no real chances to stop him from being the party's candidate.
Some point to the divisions his name sparks among fellow Republicans.
Reports have also highlighted the challenges Hillary Clinton still faces in securing the Democratic nomination.
In France, centre-right newspaper Le Figaro says Ted Cruz "has lost his insane bet" and has been "flattened by the Donald Trump steamroller".
Left-leaning Liberation said Indiana's primary was a "turning point in the campaign".
"So this Wednesday morning, Europe wakes up to Donald Trump across the Atlantic as the presumptive Republican nominee. A man who many considered just a few months ago as a clown. Many voters vote Trump precisely because he has no political experience and has never held elected office."
Centre-left Le Monde highlighted Mr Cruz's ultra-conservative "lost battle".
"Ted Cruz bet on giving a face and a voice to a conservatism that was, according to him, neglected by the Republican party. The Texas senator intended to draw apathetic voters back to the polls by embodying the most conservative values. This bet was lost and the ultimate failure came" in Indiana.
In Germany, conservative Die Welt says "the craziest US presidential election campaign begins", and that "the unthinkable has come to pass".
It says many Democrats think a Trump win means "an easy game" for Hillary Clinton, but cautions that the continued strong showing for her left-wing challenger Bernie Sanders means "she still has a problem with winning over the anti-establishment camp".
"And if the last eleven months has taught us anything about Trump, it is that you mustn't underestimate him".
Munich's centre-left Sueddeutsche Zeitung, declares Mr Trump's Indiana win the "unbelievable" culmination of a "historic election marked by an element of madness".
"Shock! it's Trump!" declares the centre-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "There's no doubt now, it will be Trump versus Clinton".
In Spain, the centre-left El Pais newspaper says Republicans "have finally admitted" that Mr Trump will be their candidate and that the "conservative elite has seen the options to stop the New York magnate exhausted".
In Italy, the liberal daily Corriere de la Sierra says the "Republican establishment now seems ready, or resigned" to Mr Trump's name.
Centre-left La Repubblica says Mr Trump's wins opens a difficult internal challenge for Republicans. "The choice for GOP voters who do not want the tycoon is limited to two options: boycott the polls and choose the protest vote endorsing Hillary [Clinton]."
In the Netherlands, liberal NRC says Mr Trump has rewritten the rules of campaigning for decades to come. "From a farcical act, it became a party revolt, and it finished last night with a Republican power grab".
The paper says his rival Ted Cruz saw himself as the saviour of the Republican Party, a second Moses. "But Republicans, like the Israelites, worshipped the Golden Calf."
In Belgium, centrist newspaper De Standaard observed that Mr Trump called Mr Cruz "a hell of a candidate" - after having called him a liar earlier in the day.
Even before Mr Trump's win in Indiana, he was already a major talking point in China, as newspapers led with articles about his "trade rape" comment. Reference News says: "Trump stuns by attacking China".
Phoenix News has the top line: "American people say that if Trump becomes president, democracy will be finished."
There is also a commentary on Global Times' website which says: "Americans are beginning to hate the political elite as voters gamble by betting on Trump."
"Voters are willing to gamble on the future of the United States, and let the outsider and political madman race on."
Chinese commentators emphasise that they do not think Mr Trump will become president.
In Russia, the official TV channels have declared Mr Trump the "de facto Republican presidential candidate". In the Democratic side, they consider the battle for the nomination far from over.
Channel One says "suspense continues in the Democratic camp, even though Hilary Clinton seems the clear front-runner". Rossiya 24 says "the battle among the Democrats is more serious" given Bernie Sanders's win in Indiana.
The popular news website Gazeta.ru features a report from Indiana under the eye-grabbing headline "capitalist pigs".
It says the biggest question remains whether Mr Trump "can overcome the resistance of the party machine and become the Republican candidate without a clear political programme, and armed with only populist slogans and vitriolic accusations against his competitors".
Yes, he can, the report concluded, point out that Mr Trump switched from "wrath to kindness" as soon as Mr Cruz conceded.
The official Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper gloats that the "nightmare of the American conservative elite has come to pass" with Mr Trump's win.
As for the presidential election itself, commentator Igor Dunayevsky says it's too early to call, given Mrs Clinton's "demonstrable weakness, and Donald Trump's unpredictability. He has time and time again confounded the predictions of pundits and opinion polls".
In Iran, moderate website Asr-e Iran carried a commentary headlined "Miracle of Trump amid inferno of Republicans".
It says that it is very unlikely that Mr Trump will beat Mrs Clinton in the elections, adding: "Undoubtedly, the Republican party is already the major loser of the US presidential election unless Trump, the magician... is able to do something to reduce his distance from his Democrat rival."
Reaction compiled with BBC Monitoring


Solihull Moors came from two goals down to earn a deserved replay at Yeovil.

Media playback is not supported on this device
The Glovers looked to be cruising into the second round after Ryan Hedges and Otis Khan fired them into a two-goal lead, but a careless red card for Kevin Dawson and a quick-fire brace from Jack Byrne earned the Midlanders a spirited draw.
It took Yeovil just eight minutes to go in front as Hedges fired past goalkeeper Danny Lewis from inside the box.
Ben Whitfield came close to doubling the hosts' lead, before Khan did score Yeovil's second goal early in the second half when he curled home a delightful free-kick.
The game turned when Dawson, already on a yellow card, was dismissed for a needless foul on Jamie Osborne as Yeovil lost their heads.
Byrne took advantage and pulled a goal back with a well-taken shot from the edge of the box, and he found space from a near-identical position six minutes later to pull Solihull level.
Substitute Akwasi Asante had a late chance to earn Solihull a famous cup upset but he fired his shot over the crossbar.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Yeovil Town 2, Solihull Moors 2.
Second Half ends, Yeovil Town 2, Solihull Moors 2.
Attempt missed. Matthew Dolan (Yeovil Town) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right.
Omari Sterling-James (Solihull Moors) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Matthew Dolan (Yeovil Town).
Liam Shephard (Yeovil Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Attempt missed. Akwasi Asante (Solihull Moors) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
Foul by Francois Zoko (Yeovil Town).
Omari Sterling-James (Solihull Moors) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Francois Zoko (Yeovil Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jordan Gough (Solihull Moors).
Bevis Mugabi (Yeovil Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Bevis Mugabi (Yeovil Town).
Akwasi Asante (Solihull Moors) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Jamey Osborne (Solihull Moors) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Akwasi Asante replaces Harry White.
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Omari Sterling-James replaces Eddie Jones.
Attempt missed. Liam Shephard (Yeovil Town) right footed shot from outside the box is too high.
Matthew Dolan (Yeovil Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jamey Osborne (Solihull Moors).
Attempt missed. Andy Brown (Solihull Moors) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right.
Hand ball by Francois Zoko (Yeovil Town).
Substitution, Yeovil Town. Francois Zoko replaces Otis Khan.
Nathan Smith (Yeovil Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Jamey Osborne (Solihull Moors).
Corner,  Solihull Moors. Conceded by Tom Eaves.
Goal!  Yeovil Town 2, Solihull Moors 2. Jack Byrne (Solihull Moors) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the top left corner.
Hand ball by Jordan Fagbola (Solihull Moors).
Alex Lacey (Yeovil Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Harry White (Solihull Moors).
Substitution, Yeovil Town. Bevis Mugabi replaces Ben Whitfield.
Goal!  Yeovil Town 2, Solihull Moors 1. Jack Byrne (Solihull Moors) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner.
Attempt missed. Jordan Fagbola (Solihull Moors) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right following a set piece situation.
Second yellow card to Kevin Dawson (Yeovil Town) for a bad foul.
Foul by Kevin Dawson (Yeovil Town).
Jamey Osborne (Solihull Moors) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt missed. Andy Brown (Solihull Moors) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left.
Goal!  Yeovil Town 2, Solihull Moors 0. Otis Khan (Yeovil Town) from a free kick with a right footed shot to the top left corner.
Ben Whitfield (Yeovil Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Jamey Osborne (Solihull Moors).


In the century since World War One, doctors still haven't worked out how to treat the pain commonly felt after a limb is removed.

Phantom limb pain, as it is called, is thought to affect around 60% of amputees.
With loss of limbs among military casualties a feature of recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, attention has once again focused on how to best treat the problem.
Experts from Imperial College London, writing in The Lancet medical journal, say the type of injuries caused by today's improvised explosive devices and the Great War's artillery munitions are similar in many ways.
Both result in musculoskeletal trauma and nerve injuries which tend to damage upper and lower limbs.
Researchers delved into medical journal archives to find out how approaches to amputations and the treatment of the chronic pain they can cause has changed over the past 100 years.
Between 1914 and 1918, gunshot wounds and damage from explosions resulted in large-scale amputations in field hospitals near the Western Front.
Although 41,000 amputees survived the war, out of seven million British soldiers deployed, medical archives suggest many were left in unspeakable pain.
Writing in The Lancet in 1916, Marmaduke Sheild, a senior consulting surgeon at hospitals treating military casualties in London and Exeter, said that post-amputation pain was "a source of intolerable suffering [to his amputee patients], and of despair to those who fit them with artificial limbs".
He called for surgeons not to use the guillotine method, which involved cutting straight through the limb quickly, because it left the nerves exposed and would be likely to cause stump pain and require more surgery.
Another surgeon recommended a two-stage amputation, with surgeons back in Britain performing a second procedure to reduce pain.
Reports in The Lancet from that time suggest that doctors were frustrated by the lack of progress being made in amputees' treatment.
Stump pain was preventing soldiers from returning to work and normal life.
Even though medical professionals put all their efforts into sharing techniques and experiences to help the injured servicemen, there was little mention of phantom limb pain, although it had been identified around 50 years earlier.
Historian Dr Emily Mayhew, from Imperial College London, who led the research, says 50% of the men who had amputations during World War One ended up returning to hospital for further treatment.
She suggests this figure is similar to the current percentage of amputees who experience post-amputation pain.
"After three years or so they often say the pain is starting to come back," says Dr Mayhew.
"This can be pain in the actual stump that is left over or a phantom pain, which is a very odd sensation of the limb still being there, or the limb in pain still being there.
"It's a bit like when your feet get very cold and feel numb, except that there is nothing there."
Phantom limb pain is now understood to be a consequence of how the nervous system adapts to damage nerves and the loss of a limb.
However, this knowledge doesn't make it any easier to manage.
Nowadays, surgeons try to remove as little of the limb as possible in a process called debridement. They concentrate on stopping the bleeding, taking away the minimum of damaged tissue and tidying up the injured area as much as possible.
Pain medicine specialists, rehabilitation experts and physical therapists then all get involved in treating the patient and lessening any post-amputation pain.
Yet, Professor Andrew Rice, from the department of pain research at Imperial College London, says, treatments are far from effective.
"In the last century, there have been significant advances in our understanding of how the brain and nervous system respond to amputation and nerve injury, in the rehabilitation process and prosthesis technology; but in terms of our therapies for chronic pain that can follow an amputation, really we've not advanced much since the First World War."
But the Great War did give rise to new physiotherapy techniques and is seen as instrumental in the move to create lighter and more flexible artificial limbs.
Hospitals were set up around the country specifically to help solders who had lost limbs, such as Erskine Hospital in Renfrewshire and Queen Mary's Hospital in Roehampton, London.
Dr Mayhew adds: "There was an extraordinary gathering of medical expertise at the time of the First World War. It was the greatest coming together of the medical profession, who were all dedicated to the wounded."
Now, Centres for Blast Injury Studies, like the one at Imperial College London, bring together scientists and medics to try to understand the damage to humans caused by all kinds of weaponry, such as a small piece of shrapnel or an explosive device.
The aim is to understand the impact of these forces at a molecular level, so that the cause of something as miserable as phantom limb pain can finally be unlocked for good.


At least 14 people have died in south-eastern China after a powerful typhoon caused floods and mudslides.

Thousands were evacuated and large areas left without power as Typhoon Soudelor barrelled through Fujian and Zhejiang provinces on Saturday.
Some counties saw 70cm (27 inches) of rain in 24 hours, the heaviest for 120 years, said state media.
The typhoon earlier swept across Taiwan, leaving at least six people dead and several missing.
Half-a-million people were still without power on the island on Sunday, the Taiwan Power Co said.
Soudelor has now weakened to a tropical storm as it heads inland.
Fujian raised its typhoon alert to the highest level in anticipation of the storm, with at least 163,000 people evacuated to higher ground. There were reports of more evacuations in neighbouring Zhejiang.
In Fujian's main city, Fuzhou, more than 10,000 trees were blown down and there was widespread flooding.
Rail services and flights were cancelled and schools and offices closed.
Twelve people were killed as heavy downpours caused mudslides in rural areas of Wenzhou municipality, in the south of Zhejiang province, Xinhua news agency reported.
Another two people were killed in nearby Lishui, and four people were reported missing, said Xinhua.
The news agency said 1.58 million people had been affected across the region, and that damages to crops and housing was estimated to be some 4bn yuan (Â£416m; $644m).
Soudelor made landfall in Taiwan earlier on Saturday, with winds of more than 230km/h (142mph), ripping up trees tearing down billboards and triggering landslides.
Among the victims were an eight-year-old girl and her mother who were swept out to sea.
A firefighter was reportedly killed after being hit by a drunk driver as he tried to move a fallen tree.


Tony Blair gave advice to newspaper executive Rebekah Brooks on handling the phone-hacking scandal six days before her arrest, a court has heard.

The court heard Mrs Brooks spoke to the former prime minister and passed on what he had said to James Murdoch, then News International executive chairman.
In an email, she said Mr Blair had said he was "available" to her, James and Rupert Murdoch as an "unofficial adviser", the Old Bailey heard.
Mrs Brooks denies any wrongdoing.
In the email, Mrs Brooks said Mr Blair had urged her to set up a "Hutton style" inquiry - a reference to the inquiry into the death of government weapons adviser Dr David Kelly.
She said Mr Blair's offer of further advice "needs to be between us".
The Hutton report exonerated Mr Blair and other officials over claims they exaggerated the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in a dossier of evidence.
Mrs Brooks sent the email on Monday 11 July 2011 - the day after the final edition of the News of the World had been published.
She resigned as News International's chief executive the following Friday, and was arrested on Sunday.
During the email exchange, she told Mr Murdoch there was no indication that the News of the World had suffered from a sales boycott on its final weekend.
Her email read: "I had an hour on the phone to Tony Blair.
"He said:
"1. Form an independent unit that has an outside junior counsel, Ken Macdonald [former director of public prosecutions], a great and good type, a serious forensic criminal barrister, internal counsel, proper fact checkers etc in it. Get them to investigate me and others and publish a Hutton-style report.
Read profiles of the defendants
"2. Publish part one of the report at same time as the police closes its inquiry and clear you and accept shortcomings and new solutions and process and part two when any trials are over.
"3. Keep strong and definitely sleeping pills. Need to have clear heads and remember no rash short-term solutions as they only give you long-term headaches.
"4. It will pass. Tough up.
"5. He is available for you, KRM [Rupert Murdoch] and me as an unofficial adviser but needs to be between us. He is sending more notes later."
Mr Blair's office issued a statement later, saying: "This was Mr Blair simply giving informal advice over the phone.
"He made it absolutely clear to Ms Brooks that, though he knew nothing personally about the facts of the case, in a situation as serious as this it was essential to have a fully transparent and independent process to get to the bottom of what had happened.
"That inquiry should be led by credible people, get all the facts out there and that if anything wrong were found there should be immediate action taken and the changes to the organisation made so that they could not happen again."
The defence case for Mrs Brooks is expected to start later this week.
She denies conspiracy to hack voicemails, conspiracy to make corrupt payments to public officials and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Mrs Brooks is one of seven defendants in the phone-hacking trial. They all deny the various charges.


Munster have named former South African international Johan 'Rassie' Erasmus as their Director of Rugby.

The 43-year-old, who is currently General Manager High Performance of South African rugby, will start in the new post in July on a three-year deal.
Erasmus will work alongside head coach Anthony Foley at Thomond Park.
"It's a challenge I humbly accept but with a clear desire to use all my past experience to make Munster  one of the top rugby clubs in Europe," he said.
Munster have struggled this season, exiting the European Champions Cup at the group stage and lying a lowly seventh in the Pro12.
Erasmus played for Free State Cheetahs and the Golden Lions in the Currie Cup, and for the Cats and Stormers in the Super 12.
He won 36 caps with the Springboks and after retiring moved into coaching, guiding the Cheetahs to Currie Cup glory in 2005.
The following year, his Cheetahs side shared the Currie Cup trophy with the Blue Bulls.
In 2007, the Eastern Cape native served as technical adviser for South Africa during their Rugby World Cup winning campaign in France before becoming Head Coach of the Stormers and Director of Coaching at Western Province.
Erasmus served a second term as technical adviser to the Springboks during the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand before assuming the General Manager High Performance role.


Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith says honours will not be bestowed upon Labour donors, MPs, advisers and staff for five years if he wins the contest.

Mr Smith, who is challenging leader Jeremy Corbyn, said he wants an honours system that rewards "selfless acts, not political and personal patronage".
Mr Corbyn was criticised for nominating Shami Chakrabarti for a peerage as part of David Cameron's resignation honours.
It comes after questions were raised about the former PM's own list.
Mr Smith, MP for Pontypridd, said Mr Cameron's list - which included many Downing Street staffers and Conservative donors - was put together with "blatant cronyism".
"David Cameron's resignation honours list has brought the system into disrepute and deepened people's mistrust of politics.
"It's simply not good enough for [Prime Minister] Theresa May to turn a blind eye to this situation - we need fundamental reform of the honours system so it can reward good deeds and restore people's trust in politics."
He also said his proposed five-year honours ban would stay in place until a total overhaul of the system was completed.
Ms Chakrabarti, who recently concluded an inquiry into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, has said she was "honoured to accept [Labour leader] Jeremy Corbyn's challenge and opportunity to help hold the government to account".
But her appointment was criticised by Jewish groups, and Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson said it was a "mistake, because I don't agree with resignation honours".
Marie van der Zyl, of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said it was "beyond disappointing" Ms Chakrabarti had been offered a peerage by Labour "following her so-called independent inquiry".
"The report, which was weak in several areas, now seems to have been rewarded with an honour," Ms van del Zyl added.
Among those honoured by Mr Cameron were former Chancellor George Osborne, who was made a Companion of Honour, while knighthoods were awarded to Tory MPs Oliver Letwin and Patrick McLoughlin among others.
Mr Cameron's ex-spin doctor Craig Oliver and Samantha Cameron's adviser Isabel Spearman are also on the honours list.


Premiership leaders Northampton beat 14-man Wasps 52-30 but their victory was soured by a worrying head injury suffered by Wales wing George North.

North was knocked unconscious in the act of scoring his second try.
Nathan Hughes caught North late with a knee to the head and was sent off, while the 22-year-old received several minutes of treatment before being carried off on a stretcher.
Christian Wade's hat-trick of tries proved to be vain for Wasps.
Northampton are 14 points clear at the top of the table but their main concern will be over North, who was reported to be awake in the dressing room as the second half commenced.
Afterwards, director of rugby Jim Mallinder said North may be available to play in their Champions Cup match at Clermont next weekend, telling BT Sport: "He clearly took a bang straight to the head but he came round and he sat up in the changing room and managed to have a little sing-song.
"We'll look after him and hopefully he'll be okay next weekend."
However, after sustaining two head blows in Wales' Six Nations defeat by England in February and missing the subsequent match against Scotland, there are sure to be more questions about the player's welfare and the current protocols regarding those who suffer concussions.
Prior to the incident that led to North's premature exit, Wasps had been in control and looked certain to take a lead into half-time, but forward Hughes's dismissal turned the match in Northampton's favour.
Wade's counter-attacking opener from distance and a second superbly created by fly-half Alex Lozowski sandwiched North's first, which came courtesy of Stephen Myler's excellent cross-field kick.
The sides swapped penalties to leave Wasps 12 points clear at 20-8, but Hughes's red card changed the game.
A powerful rolling maul earned the hosts a penalty try and prop Alex Corbisiero barged his way over to secure a bonus point for Saints before the interval.
Mallinder's men struggled to make the advantage of an extra man count, with Wade's hat-trick try out wide bringing Wasps to within three points, before a Ken Pisi score and two more from replacement Ahsee Tuala in the final 10 minutes made the game safe for the Saints.
Myler's tally of 17 points took the fly-half ahead of Paul Grayson as Northampton's all-time leading scorer of points in the Premiership.
Wasps director of rugby Dai Young:
"First of all I hope George is okay, Nathan has gone looking for him to make sure he is okay - he is not that type of person.
"When you slow anything down it looks worse than it actually is and when the crowd get on the referee's back - a young referee - there is only going to be one decision.
"We felt it was a bit harsh.
"That eight minutes before half-time killed us, and the last eight minutes made the scoreline look a lot worse. It was a little bit cruel we didn't come away with a bonus point."
Northampton Saints: Wilson; K. Pisi, G. Pisi, Stephenson, North; Myler, L. Dickson; Corbisiero, Hartley, Ma'afu, Lawes, C. Day, Wood, Clark, Manoa.
Replacements: Haywood, A. Waller, Denman, S. Dickinson, Fisher, Fotuali'i, Waldouck, Tuala.
Wasps: Miller; Wade, Daly, Downey, Tagicakibau; Lozowski, Simpson; Mullan, Shervington, Cittadini, Cannon, Myall, Johnson, Young, N. Hughes.
Replacements: McIntyre, Swainston, Gaskell, E. Jackson, Thompson, Weepu, G. Hughes, W. Helu.
Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys


Two people have been hurt in a road accident involving a pedestrian and motorbike in Swansea.

The pedestrian was airlifted while the motorcyclist was conveyed to hospital by paramedics following the incident on Carmarthen Road on Friday just after 17:00 BST.
South Wales Police said both casualties sustained non life-threatening injuries.
The road was closed following the incident but reopened at 21:30 BST.


British and Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland expects injured captain Sam Warburton to play before the tour of New Zealand begins in June.

Warburton suffered a knee injury in Cardiff Blues' 24-24 draw at Ulster in April, ruling him out for six weeks.
Blues head coach Danny Wilson said the 28-year-old may return for a possible European Champions Cup play-off final - a week before the tour's first game.
"I spoke to Sam and he feels that he could play now," Gatland said.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Gatland continued: "He's made some really good progress and really happy with how he's responded to treatment over the last few weeks.
"I expect him to play before he goes to New Zealand. I think he's looking to play for the Blues and if potentially they are involved in one of the play-off games to get into Europe, he's hoping to be selected for that."
Meanwhile, Gatland also said scrum-half Conor Murray and lock Alun Wyn Jones were progressing in their own recoveries from injury.
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Murray sustained up a shoulder injury in Ireland's Six Nations defeat by Wales in March while Jones also injured his shoulder in Wales' defeat by France on 18 March.
"[Jones] is making good progress. [Lions forward coach] Steve Borthwick went down and saw him last week and he's confident that he's going to be okay as well," Gatland said.
"It looks like the Ospreys are going to be involved in the semi-finals of the Pro12 and that would give him [Jones] an opportunity to get some rugby under his belt.
"Conor Murray, the prognosis with him looks pretty positive in terms of hopefully getting back and getting a game for Munster as well, and that'll be good for him over the next few weeks if he can get a game.
"The ideal scenario is that, and it's not for everyone, but depending on how long ago you've picked up an injury, you want some players to get back on the field and get a game under their belt before we go on tour."


Top weight O'Faolains Boy, trained by Pembrokeshire's Rebecca Curtis, is among the confirmed entries at the five-day stage for the Coral Welsh National at Chepstow on 27 December.

The 2014 Cheltenham festival winner returned from injury and poor form to win at Newbury last week.
Curtis has three more possible runners in Bob Ford, Red Devil Lads and Audacious Plan for race.
Two past winners, Emperor's Choice and Mountainous, are also in the field.
Mountainous, who won in 2013, is trained by Kerry Lee, who took over the reins from her father Richard at the family's Presteigne stable in the summer. She is also represented by Russe Blanc.
The Venetia Williams-trained Emperor's Choice made a timely return to action for the first time since his success 12 months ago when scoring at Haydock five weeks ago.
Three of the ante-post market leaders - Jonjo O'Neill's Upswing, the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained Cogry and Alan King's Midnight Prayer - have stood their ground.
But one notable omission is Tom Symonds' Kaki De La Pree.
Heading the weights on 11st 11lb are the Paul Nicholls-trained Black Thunder and O'Faolains Boy, the 2014 RSA Chase victor who returned to winning form at Newbury earlier this month.
The sole Irish-trained horse left in is Folsom Blue, from Mouse Morris' yard in County Tipperary.


The fiftieth anniversary of a Liverpool landmark will be marked later.

Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral will host a Mass at 11:00 BST by the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols.
It will be followed at 15:00 with a special service attended by leaders of all of Merseyside's Christian churches.
The church was consecrated on 14 May 1967, but its opening is celebrated annually during Pentecost, which moves each year in line with when Easter is.
The cathedral was designed by architect Frederick Gibberd, who was also responsible for Didcot Power Station and London Central Mosque, and attracts more than 350,000 visitors a year.
Liverpool Archbishop Malcolm McMahon said the building "strikes the eye as it reaches towards the sky".
"Sir Frederick's very modern design speaks of the hopes of the Catholic people of Liverpool soaring upwards to heaven," he added.
Cardinal Nichols, who was born in nearby Crosby, began his ministry in the area and was ordained as a priest to the Archdiocese of Liverpool in 1969.


Street lights in Reading, Wokingham and Slough are to be modernised in a £27m scheme.

The work will see streetlamps, the lights on road signs and illuminated bollards replaced with LEDs.
Reading council said the scheme was expected to halve electricity bills and save on maintenance costs because the lights last longer.
A £19.3m grant from the government's Highways Challenge Fund has been used to help finance the project.


Conservative MPs are "mobilising" to campaign against any rise in fuel duty, the BBC has been told.

Some are worried the chancellor could announce a rise in next week's Budget.
A Treasury minister is to meet fuel campaigners, including the Tory MP Jason McCartney, on Tuesday.
Mr McCartney said he was very concerned and would be urging colleagues to lobby Treasury ministers and officials and is to email every MP warning a rise is rumoured and seeking their opinions.
"We'll be mobilising all the supporters of the Fair Fuel group in Parliament this week," he said.
Treasury minister Damian Hinds is to meet McCartney and representatives from the Fair Fuel UK Campaign at noon on Tuesday.
Another Conservative MP said any rise in duty would be outrageous.
A Sunday Times report that an unnamed minister had said people would hardly notice an extra 2p on petrol has alarmed some backbenchers.
Mr McCartney said: "Me and my Conservative colleagues will really be making the case as strongly as we can this week to Treasury ministers and Treasury officials that we need to continue this good work that we've done."
A Treasury source said reports of a possible rise were speculative.
In an interview with the BBC last month Chancellor George Osborne declined to rule out a rise in fuel duty, but added there was a clear commitment in the Conservative manifesto to help working people.


A blaze at a block of flats in an Edinburgh housing estate was started deliberately, police believe.

Three women and a man were treated for the effects of breathing in smoke following the fire in Murrayburn Green, Sighthill, on Sunday night.
It is thought abandoned furniture was deliberately set alight in the building's common close at about 21:00.
Two of the woman were taken to hospital for medical checks. A total of eight homes had been evacuated.
Police said they were keen to speak to anyone who could help them trace those responsible.
Insp David Ferguson of Corstorphine Police Station said: "Thankfully no-one was seriously injured in this incident but it could have been much worse.
"I am keen to hear from anyone who was in the area around 21:00 on Sunday night and who might have information that can assist us with our inquiries.
"I'd also like to remind residents not to leave items of furniture or rubbish in communal areas where they can be a target for fire-raising."


While it hasn't been an epic encounter like the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement or the following struggles for dominance within unionism and nationalism, I don't agree that the 2015 Westminster campaign has been lacklustre.

At times it felt disjointed as the local parties fought over different territory.
The DUP emphasised its potential role in a hung parliament, while Sinn Féin portrayed the contest as a battle against austerity; a stepping stone towards next year's Dáil and Stormont elections.
However it was certainly packed with incident.
The local parties complained about being excluded from the UK-wide debates, but threats of legal action came to nothing.
The two main unionist parties were accused of playing sectarian politics when they agreed a pact in four seats.
Sinn Féin faced the same allegation after distributing a leaflet in North Belfast that equated Catholics with nationalists and Protestants with unionists.
The DUP had to defend including a feasibility study for a tunnel to Scotland in its manifesto. Sinn Féin had to explain an apparent promise from one of its candidates to pay off people's credit card debts.
SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell kept a low profile during debates and hustings. The former leader Mark Durkan didn't seem to bother defending Dr McDonnell against criticism of his double jobbing in the BBC's final election debate.
Mindful of the pact, the Ulster Unionists muted their criticism of the DUP, whilst working to try to make up the ground against the bigger party in a couple of key seats.
Other parties such as the TUV and UKIP targeted the Northern Ireland Executive parties' track record at Stormont and the mandatory coalition system that makes it so hard to change the make-up of the devolved government. The Greens emphasised their opposition to any welfare cuts.
The DUP endeavoured to keep the focus on the UK-wide position and the need to strengthen the union.
But same-sex marriage - now the subject of a referendum in the Republic of Ireland - forced its way on to the agenda.
That eventually led to the big political story of the campaign - the resignation of Stormont Health Minister Jim Wells after making controversial comments on homosexuality and child abuse at a Downpatrick hustings.
On the lighter side, I haven't covered a campaign before where a candidate (the UUP's Robin Swann) says he was been mistaken for a male stripper while canvassing a house.
Nor have we seen a candidate (Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly) soliciting a Star Wars stormtrooper for support (even though criticism of his party's leaflet led some social media wags to joke about whether it was "a Protestant stormtrooper or a Catholic stormtrooper").
Once the votes are cast and the ballot papers counted, we will know whether the local parties will be in a position to make a difference in a hung parliament.
Either way, some difficult negotiations between our representatives and a new Northern Ireland secretary are inevitable, as the unresolved deadlock over welfare reform means the current Stormont budget has a black hole that needs to be filled.


More than half of university students in Australia were sexually harassed at least once in 2016, according to a national survey.

The Australian Human Rights Commission report also found that almost 7% of students were sexually assaulted on at least one occasion in 2015 or 2016.
Women at university were more likely than men to be assaulted or harassed, the commission found.
The milestone study is said to be the largest of its kind in Australia.
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said the report painted a "disturbing" picture of university life.
"It is confronting to learn that sexual assault and sexual harassment are a common part of these students' experiences in their academic, their social and their residential life," she said.
"Sadly, the impacts of these experiences have devastating impacts and it can be life-changing, affecting health, studies and future careers."
The study of 39 universities and 31,000 students found that sexual assault and harassment had occurred in varying degrees in all university settings.
A university setting was defined as on campus, at an event organised or endorsed by the institution, or on technology - such as the internet - where perpetrators were university-related.
"One in five of those who were sexually assaulted said that this occurred at a university or residence social event," said Ms Jenkins.
"We found that college settings are a particular area of concern, particularly for women who were four times as likely as men to have been sexually assaulted in this setting."
The survey also found:
University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor, Peter Hoj, said the statistics were very concerning.
"The report indicates that about 1.6% of students are sexually assaulted in a university setting nationally - there is only one acceptable number and that is zero," he said.
"There is no place for those unacceptable behaviours at university or in the wider society."
The report authors called on universities to improve their responses to assaults and harassment.


Donald Trump has called off a rally in Chicago after protests against the Republican presidential front-runner led to violent clashes.

Hundreds of protesters gathered at the venue at the University of Illinois at Chicago hours before Mr Trump was due.
Inside the auditorium, fighting broke out between supporters and protesters, who waved flags and chanted.
A statement from Mr Trump's campaign said the candidate decided to postpone the event after meeting with police.
In pictures: Chicago rally hit by protests
What Trump says about protesters at his rallies
However, a Chicago Police Department spokesman said the force had not recommended that Mr Trump postpone the rally.
The clashes began more than an hour before the event was due to start, and continued after it was cancelled, minutes after Mr Trump was to have appeared.
There were chants for Mr Trump from his supporters and for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders from some of the protesters.
There were several violent clashes sparked by Trump supporters attempting to wrestle flags from protesters.
One protester had to be physically removed from the stage by what appeared to be a Secret Service agent.
Violent clashes continued outside the venue, with helicopter footage showing chaotic scenes as police attempted to control the large crowds.
One protester, student Ali Alhechimi told the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper: "This is a victory. This is an absolute victory. I want to thank everyone who showed up."
The full statement from Mr Trump's campaign read: "Mr Trump just arrived in Chicago and after meeting with law enforcement has determined that for the safety of all of the tens of thousands of people that have gathered in and around the arena, tonight's rally will be postponed to another date.
"Thank you very much for your attendance and please go in peace."
Speaking to Fox News after the events, Mr Trump denied using hate speech or playing any part in fostering division.
"I represent a large group of people that have a lot of anger," he said. "There is tremendous anger out there on both sides."
Discussing the decision to cancel the rally, he said: "I think it was a very good thing we did, I think it was an intelligent decision."
It was supposed to be a political rally. Instead, many of the scenes resembled a bar-room brawl. Protesters had spent days planning the disruption, and they succeeded. The scenes inside the venue, where Trump supporters and protesters shoved and shouted at one another, were raw and angry.
The two sides have one thing in common: rage. Many Trump supporters are disillusioned and disenfranchised by a political establishment they feel does not represent them. The protesters in turn perceive the tone and rhetoric of Mr Trump's campaign as racist and divisive.
Will it harm the billionaire's election prospects? He may come across as the candidate who was denied the right to speak at his own political event. Or it may make voters wonder whether his entire campaign would be beset by rage. And if it comes down to a contest of angry Americans - are there more with him or against him?
Why are Americans so angry?
How extreme is Donald Trump?
Could Trump's vulgarity cost him the nomination?
The Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus supporting Trump
Mr Trump's rivals for the Republican nomination, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, both called the incident "sad".
"When you have a campaign that affirmatively encourages violence," Texas Senator Cruz said, "you create an environment that only encourages this sort of nasty discourse."
Staff at the university had earlier petitioned administrators to cancel the rally, citing concerns it would create a "hostile and physically dangerous environment" for students.
A number of Trump rallies have been interrupted by protesters before.
Earlier on Friday, 32 people were arrested after protests at a rally held by Mr Trump rally in St Louis, Missouri.
Mr Trump was repeatedly interrupted by the protesters, whom he called a "disgrace".
These latest clashes come just a day after a Trump supporter was charged with assault after multiple videos showed him punching a protester at a campaign rally in North Carolina.
The billionaire later said that the supporter's actions were "appropriate".


Santander - the biggest gainer last year of customers switching current accounts - is set to increase charges on one of its most popular accounts.

From 11 January, it will charge £5 a month, instead of £2 a month, for its 123 current account.
So, 3.6 million customers will face an annual charge of £60, rather than £24.
The announcement comes just a few weeks ahead of the initial findings from the competition authorities on retail banking in the UK.
It is expected to give a detailed account of why relatively few people switch their current account provider.
Santander had an estimated net gain of 12% of current account customers in 2014, primarily as a result of the 123 account, figures from researchers TNS suggest.
This was the highest proportion of any major bank, ahead of Halifax (a 6% net gain) and Nationwide Building Society (a 4% net gain).
The bank said it had attracted 502,200 customers from other institutions since the Current Account Switching Service began in September 2013.
Hannah Maundrell, editor of money.co.uk, said: "It seems this venus fly trap was a great catalyst for the current account switching market but, now they have got people on board, [the 123 account] is becoming less of an attractive deal from January.
"Despite the account offering 3% interest on balances from £3,000 to £20,000 and cashback on some direct debit payments, the number of people who remain in pocket will be reduced significantly."
The bank it also making changes to its 123 credit card, meaning less cashback for some of the 1.8 million customers with this card as well as an annual fee increase from £24 to £36.
The accounts were launched three years ago, but now the charges needed to change owing to "external factors", the bank said.
Reza Attar-Zadeh, head of retail products at Santander, said: "Since launch we have not made any changes to the fee or cashback levels on these products.
"However, external market factors mean we have had to make some changes to ensure the products continue to meet the needs of our customers, but also our shareholders. We are writing to all our existing 123 customers and making sure we help them understand the changes and the options available to them."
Retail banking in the UK is the subject of a review by the competition authorities. The provisional findings are expected to be published in October.
There are 65 million active personal current accounts in the UK.


Two major Belfast office projects from the developer Paddy Kearney have been recommended for planning approval.

Mr Kearney's Kilmona group wants to build a four-block scheme on a site next to Central Station and extend an existing building on Chichester Street.
Residents in the adjacent Markets area have objected to the Central Station scheme and elements of the original plan have been changed as a result.
Councillors on the planning committee are to make final decisions next week.
The Central Station scheme consists of a 14-storey block, a 10-storey block and two three-storey blocks which will have total floor space of about 323,000 sq ft (30,000 sq m).
The Chichester Street scheme will involve extending and upgrading Centre House.
The plan includes the demolition of an existing three-storey office building on Gloucester Street and the addition of a 'glass box' extension to the upper levels of Centre House.
Belfast has seen little development of Grade A office space since the property crash.


Two council managers have been sacked after adults with learning disabilities were ill-treated at a private hospital.

The pair, who worked for South Gloucestershire Council, were dismissed as a result of events at Winterbourne View, near Bristol.
Both managers were responsible for safeguarding vulnerable adults, the BBC understands.
The ill-treatment was uncovered during secret filming by BBC Panorama at the Castlebeck-owned care home.
The first person to be sacked was Kevin Haigh, an experienced team manager who had worked in the area for 16 years, who was dismissed in March.
Brian Clarke, the council's safeguarding adults manager with 10 years of experience, was dismissed in April.
It is understood that a-year-and-a-half before the whistleblower came forward and the programme was filmed, Mr Haigh and Mr Clarke were alerted to other allegations of serious abuse.
They will have the right of appeal. The BBC has not been able to get in touch with either of them.
In a statement, their union Unison said: 'We believe that there may be wider failures in safeguarding procedures in South Gloucestershire in relation to Winterbourne View which go far beyond the involvement of any two individuals.
"Lessons must be learnt from this situation.'"
Twenty-four patients were transferred from Winterbourne View following the BBC investigation and the hospital was closed in June 2011.
It has since been bought by Glenside Manor Healthcare Services which plans to reopen it as a neurological rehabilitation centre.
A serious case review is due to be published later in the year.


After success with television dramas such as Foyle's War, Collision and Midsomer Murders, Anthony Horowitz's latest project lifts the lid on the little-seen world of the Serious Fraud Office.

As its title suggests, New Blood endeavours to offer a fresh journey along the well-trodden path of TV crime drama.
But even an experienced writer like Anthony Horowitz admits it wasn't easy making fraud a sexy subject for the small screen.
"Fraud is very difficult to dramatise," he says after a private screening of the first episode.
"People are not going to sit there and listen to figures and share movements."
As part of his research, Horowitz made several visits to the Serious Fraud Office, and an SFO adviser was attached to the production.
"The SFO is brand new to TV, so what the world will understand on how they work comes from me," says Horowitz.
"I had a duty to be true to the sort of people they are, but at the same time I couldn't make them boring or show investigations that last two or three years - they have to be solved in three weeks.
"It's an interesting balance between reality and fiction. I hope I've been responsible."
The seven-part series, set in contemporary London, stars Mark Strepan as Stefan Kowolski, a junior investigator for the Serious Fraud Office, and Ben Tavassoli as young PC Arrash "Rash" Sayyad.
They find themselves investigating seemingly unrelated cases connected to a dodgy pharmaceutical trial in India six years earlier.
The cast includes Mark Addy, as an old-school detective, and Anna Chancellor as Stefan's boss.
But Horowitz's focus is very much on what he calls his "Generation Y" characters - those born in the 1980s and early 90s - and the challenges they face living in the capital.
"The kids who read Alex Rider [Horowitz's best-selling series of teenage spy novels] were aged eight, nine and 10 and now they are Generation Y," he says.
"Stefan and Rash are Alex Rider grown up, in a way."
As with Peter Kay's Car Share, viewers will be able to watch New Blood on the BBC iPlayer next week, ahead of transmission on BBC One.
Horowitz acknowledges that it's a good way to launch a show about a younger generation, but he's keen not to exclude other viewers.
"I didn't write this TV just for 20- and 30-year-olds," he says.
"I'm 60, and I binge watch TV.
"It's the way things are going.
"It is also true, and the BBC are aware of it, that we have to nurture a new TV audience.
"We can't just write drama for mums and dads and grandparents.
"I was always told with Foyle's War that it was 'everybody's mother's favourite programme'.
"It used to occur to me why couldn't it be their favourite programme too?"
Horowitz's other TV writing credits include Poirot, Murder in Mind, Injustice, Robin of Sherwood and Crime Traveller.
As an author, he resurrected Sherlock Holmes in his 2011 novel The House of Silk and its 2014 sequel Moriarty.
Last year saw the publication of his James Bond novel, Trigger Mortis, and the premiere of his satirical play Dinner with Saddam.
While he adapted his own Alex Rider novel Stormbreaker into a 2006 movie, most of his screenwriting is for the small screen.
"This is without any question the golden age of television," Horowitz says.
"Who in the street is talking about the last Marvel film any more?
"It's so rare for them to be part of our daily conversation.
"But everybody is excited about what's happening in television, both in this country and in America."
He reels off titles, including Mr Robot, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and the "miraculously intelligent" The Good Wife.
"Real understanding of narrative has moved away from cinema and into TV and that's the wave I'm cresting at the moment," he says.
As with many of his previous TV dramas, Horowitz will be making a cameo appearance in New Blood.
"It's not in the first three episodes, that's as much as I'll say. You can't miss me, I'm afraid," he says.
"It's my fifth or six cameo - it's becoming a regular thing.
"I have two things in common with Alfred Hitchcock - my cameo appearances and my initials."
The first three episodes of New Blood will be on the BBC iPlayer from 2 June


Rangers were under a signing embargo until 1 September but still managed to be the most significant players in the transfer market this summer in Scotland's League one.

Pre-contracts agreements with free agents allowed them to persuade four players to step down from top-flight clubs in return for higher wages, while last season's top scorer in the division, Nicky Clark, switched from promoted Queen of the South.
Initially, their new signings were only permitted to play a limited number of games at trialists, but they are now fully registered to play with last season's Division Two champions already top of the table.
While Rangers are now free of the on-field problems resulting from liquidation, relegated Dunfermline Athletic were the most restricted side in terms of movements because of their summer in administration.
East Fife and Airdrieonians had the highest turnover of players, with the Methil club in particular making some eye-catching signings, former Hearts striker Christian Nade being the best known of a number of arrivals from overseas.
Forfar Athletic also added some top-flight experience with veterans Rab Douglas, Darren Dods and Marvin Andrews arriving at Station Park.
In: , goalkeeper (Rangers), Colin Stewart, goalkeeper (Cowdenbeath); Garry Hay, defender (Kilmarnock); Paddy Boyle, defender (Dunfermline Athletic); Paul Lovering, defender (Pollok); Darren McCormack, defender (East Fife); Mick O'Byrne, defender (Albion Rovers); Martin Hardie, midfielder (Morton); David Sinclair, midfielder (Ayr United); Lewis Coult, forward (Cowdenbeath); Jim Lister, forward (Dumbarton); Kyle Richford, forward (Campsie Black Watch). Loan: Jonathan Grier, goalkeeper (Albion Rovers)
Out: Colin Stewart, goalkeeper; Kenny Arthur, goalkeeper (Annan Athletic); Jamie Barclay, goalkeeper (Clyde, loan to permanent); Garry Hay, defender (retired); Jordan Kirkpatrick, defender (Dumbarton); Marc Warren, defender (Sydney); David Lilley, defender; Kyle Nicoll, defender; Gavin Griffin, defender; lan Cook, midfielder (Arbroath); Sean Lynch, midfielder (Stenhousemuir); Fraser Keast, midfielder; Jordan Moore, forward (Dunfermline Athletic); Paul di Giacomo, forward; Ryan Donnelly, forward (Brechin City). Loan: Ricki Lamie, defender (Queen's Park). Loan ended: Robbie Thomson, goalkeeper (Celtic); Steven Hetherington, midfielder (Motherwell)
In: Jonathan Lindsay, defender (Stalybridge Celtic); Ricky Little, defender (Queen's Park); Alan Cook, midfielder (Airdrieonians); Lari Yao, midfielder (Croydon Athletic); Bobby Linn, midfielder (Ballingry Rovers); Darren Smith, midfielder (East Fife); Steven Milne, forward (Dundee). Loan: Bradley Donaldson, defender (Hibernian); Lee Erwin, forward (Motherwell)
Out: Mark Baxter, defender (Forfar Athletic); Stuart Malcolm, defender (Forfar Athletic); Scott Robertson, defender (Stranraer); Steven Doris, forward (Dundee); Derek Holmes, forward; Darren Gribben, forward; Brian Kerr, midfielder; Danny Rennie, forward, Jake Mair, midfielder
In: David Hutton, goalkeeper (Morton); Alan Lithgow, defender (Dumbarton); Josh McArthur, defender (St Mirren); Gordon Pope, defender (Auchinleck Talbot); Craig Malcolm, forward (Stranraer)
Out: Graeme Smith, goalkeeper (Brechin City); Darren Brownlie, defender (Partick Thistle); Chris Smith, defender (Stirling Albion); Ross Robertson, defender (Glenafton Athletic); Alan Murdoch, defender (Lanark United); Ryan McStay, midfielder (Irvine Meadow); David Sinclair, midfielder (Airdrieonians); David Winters, forward (Sauchie); Liam Buchanan, forward (East Fife); Roddy Patterson, forward; David Brownlie, defender. Loan: Darren McGill, midfielder (Cumnock)
In: Graeme Smith, goalkeeper (Ayr United); Steven Jackson, defender (East Stirlingshire); Steven Ross, midfielder (Singhtarua); Chris Tobin, midfielder (St Johnstone); Stuart Anderson, midfielder (Raith Rovers); Allan Walker, midfielder (Raith Rovers); Bobby Barr, midfielder (Livingston); Ryan Donnelly, forward (Airdrieonians)
Out: Michael Andrews, goalkeeper (East Fife); Aaron Murdoch, defender (East Kilbride Thistle); Gary Fusco, midfielder (Forfar Athletic); Jordan Lowdon, midfielder (Peninsula Power); Ryan Stewart, midfielder (Forfar Athletic); Johnny Stewart, midfielder (East Fife), David McKenna, midfielder (Stranraer). Loan ended: Ryan Ferguson, defender (Dundee United)
In: James Washburn, defender (Torquay United); Robert Thomson, forward (Dundee United). Loan: Ryan Scully, goalkeeper (Partick Thistle); Luke Johnston, defender (Dundee United); Ryan Ferguson, midfielder (Dundee United); Jordan Moore, forward (Dundee United)
Out: Michal Hrvnak, goalkeeper; Paddy Boyle, defender (Airdrieonians); Stephen Jordan, defender (Fleetwood Town); Mark Kerr, midfielder (Partick Thistle); Paul Burns, midfielder (Queen of the South); Paul Willis, midfielder (East Fife, loan to permanent); James Washburn, defender (Torquay United); Grant Munro, defender
In: Christian Nade, forward (Rayong); , defender (Aberdeen); Robbie Neilson, defender; Liam Buchanan, forward (Ayr United); Pat Clarke, forward (Raith Rovers); Joe Mbu, defender (Cowdenbeath); Paul Willis, midfielder (Dunfermline Athletic, loan to permanent); Cedric Tuta, forward (BX Brussels); Alex Dutot, defender (Rouen); Emmanuel Semedo, midfielder (Cannes); Cyrus Moosavi, forward (Edinburgh University); Greg Paterson, goalkeeper (Linlithgow Rose); Michael Andrews, goalkeeper (Brechin City); Johnny Stewart, midfielder (Brechin City); Ryan Stewart, midfielder (Brechin City); Gregor Fotheringham, midfielder (Forfar Athletic); Gary Thom, defender (Stirling Albion); Nathan Austin, forward (Leven Athletic)
Out: Collin Samuel, forward; Bob Malcolm, defender; David Muir, midfielder (Toronto Lynx); Michael Brown, goalkeeper (Queen's Park); Gareth Wardlaw, forward (Hill of Beath Hawthorn); Dale Keenan, midfielder (Partick Thistle); Darren McCormack, defender (Airdrieonians); Robert Sloan, midfielder (Bo'ness United); David White, defender (Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic); Paul McManus, forward (Forfar Athletic); Sean Jamieson, midfielder (Newtongrange Star); Liam Gormley, midfielder; Sean Jamieson, forward; Andrew Collier, goalkeeper; James Martin, midfielder. Loan: Emmanuel Semedo, midfielder (Ballingry Rovers)
In: Rab Douglas, goalkeeper (Dundee); Darren Dods, defender (Falkirk); Marvin Andrews, defender (Albion Rovers); Mark Baxter, defender (Arbroath); Stuart Malcolm, defender (Arbroath); Paul McManus, forward (East Fife); Gary Fusco, midfielder (Brechin City); Bryan Deasley, midfielder (Lochee United); Neil McCabe, midfielder (Kelty Hearts); James Dale, midfielder (Stirling University). Loan: Dale Hilson, midfielder (Dundee United)
Out: Derek Soutar, goalkeeper; Danny Denholm, midfielder (Livingston); Michael Bolochoweckyi, defender (East Stirlingshire); Kevin Motion, midfielder (Spartans); Gregor Fotheringham, midfielder (East Fife); Stephen Tulloch, defender (Berwick Rangers); Odmar Faero, defender; Barry Sellars, midfielder; Keith Gibson, midfielder; Connor Gray, midfielder. Loan: Bryan Deasley, midfielder (Montrose); Michael Dunlop, defender (Berwick Rangers)
In: , goalkeeper (Dundee); , goalkeeper (Kilmarnock); , forward (Dundee United); , midfielder (Motherwell); , defender (Bristol City); , forward (Queen of the South); , midfielder; , defender (Portland Timbers); , defender (Southend United)
Out: , goalkeeper (Crystal Palace); , defender (Chivas); , defender (Asteras Tripolis); , forward (Lugo); Kal Naismith, midfielder (Accrington Stanley); Kane Hemmings, forward (Cowdenbeath); , goalkeeper (Hamilton Academical); , defender. Loan: , goalkeeper (Airdrieonians); Andy Mitchell, defender (Annan Athletic)
In: Chris Smith, goalkeeper (St Mirren, loan to permanent); Eddie Malone, defender (Raith Rovers); Sean Higgins, forward (Falkirk); Sean Lynch, midfielder (Airdrieonians); Nicky Devlin, defender (Motherwell, loan to permanent); Ross McNeil, forward (Rutherglen Glencairn); Errol Douglas, forward (Craigroyston) Loan: Ross Smith, defender (Dundee United);
Out: Andy Rodgers, forward (Peterhead); Greg Ross, defender (Penicuik Athletic); Stewart Kean, forward (Hurlford United); Iain Thomson, midfielder (East Stirlingshire); Kieran Anderson, midfielder (Bo'ness United); Stuart Love, forward (Sauchie); Connor Fairley, goalkeeper; Scott Brown, forward; Daniel Hepburn-Exposito, forward. Loan ended: Joe Mbu, defender (Cowdenbeath); Mark Corcoran, midfielder (Ross County); Jamie Reid, midfielder (Dundee)
In: Mark Corcoran, midfielder (Ross County); Martin Grehan, forward (Alloa Athletic); Andy Stirling, midfielder (Kitsap Pumas); Mark Docherty, defender (Alloa Athletic); Scott Robertson, defender (Arbroath); David McKenna, midfielder (Brechin City); Jamie Longworth, forward (Queen's Park); Chris Fahey, goalkeeper (Cumnock). Loan: Scott Rumsby, defender (Aberdeen)
Out: Craig Malcolm, forward (Ayr United); Mick Dunlop, defender (Albion Rovers); Max Wright, forward (East Stirlingshire); Michael Moore, forward (Kilbirnie Ladeside); Mark Staunton, defender (Irvine Meadow); Robert Love, midfielder (Cumnock); Angus Cochrane, midfielder. Loan ended: Jamie Campbell, midfielder (Partick Thistle); Darren Gribben, forward (Arbroath)
Follow Clive Lindsay on Twitter


Derbyshire's County Championship match against Northants has been abandoned without a ball being bowled because of a wet outfield at Chesterfield.

Despite a dry 24 hours, umpires Neil Mallender and Ian Blackwell adjudged the Queen's Park ground as unplayable.
Another inspection took place at 14:45 BST, when the umpires decided no play would be possible on Thursday either.
Derbyshire's T20 Blast game against Yorkshire on Sunday has been moved to Derby because of the unfit outfield.
The fixture will now be played at the County Ground.
Derbyshire chief executive Simon Storey told BBC Radio Derby:
"It's a very tough decision in that we love coming to Chesterfield, but ultimately we need to give the game the best possible chance of being played.
"Having consulted the umpires in terms of making calls on the state of the pitch for this game and looking forward, I think we have to give the game the best chance.
"It's a beautiful venue to play cricket but ultimately it's an exciting stage of the T20 tournament and we want to put that high on the agenda. It's a decision that we reluctantly have to make."


A man has handed over a £3,000 cheque to an Oxford hospital to thank staff for saving the lives of his girlfriend and their newborn daughter.

Kevin Smees' partner Nicola Lansdown collapsed at home with a brain tumour while heavily pregnant in May.
Doctors at the John Radcliffe Hospital performed an emergency Caesarean, and Ms Lansdown was put in an induced coma.
Afterwards Mr Smees, 38, from Aylesbury, began fundraising. "I can't thank them enough," he said.
"I owe them everything."
Ms Lansdown, also 38, collapsed with a bleed on the brain, two days before she was due to have an induced labour.
After their daughter Lexi was born, Ms Lansdown spent two days in a neurological ward before being placed in an induced coma for four weeks.
She can now say up to 100 words, has some feeling in her right side and is due to start rehabilitation in a week.
Speaking about the staff at the John Radcliffe, Mr Smees said: "I can't stop thinking how great these people are... they really know their stuff, so I feel I just want to give something back.
"What they did over there was absolutely amazing.
"I thought if I could get £500 I'd be happy but the generosity of friends, family and some people completely anonymous... it just shows what kind people there are out there.
"I'm amazed really. I'm very shocked and stunned and very appreciative of everything that people have done."
He described Lexi as a "very good little girl".
"She's had the odd moment like babies do, but in general I can't complain at all," he said.
"From what was a bad situation... to where Nicola is today, it's an absolute miracle. That's the only way I can describe it."
Sarah Vaccari, from Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Charitable Funds said it was "wonderful" to meet the whole family in person.
She said: "We are incredibly grateful to Kevin and his family for thinking of the hospital charity.
"To know that he somehow found the time to raise this money whilst caring for a newborn and looking after his very ill fiancée is simply inspiring.  We thank him wholeheartedly.'


An Alloa supermarket has introduced a "quiet hour" to help customers with conditions that make noise and commotion difficult to deal with.

The Auld Brig Road Tesco Extra will switch off music, the public address system and other electronic systems including display televisions.
The quiet hour will take place between 18:00 and 19:00 on Wednesdays.
The company said feedback from customers during a trial run had been "overwhelmingly positive."
Samantha Garson, senior autism practitioner at New Struan School in Alloa, said: "People with autism often have a "sensory overload" due to their difficulty in processing everyday sensory information.
"Any of the senses can be over or under-sensitive, which can obviously be very distressing for the individual."
Ms Garson said making small changes, such as the quiet hour, could have a "hugely beneficial impact".
She said: "The Tesco Extra store in Alloa will be a much friendlier environment for people with autism and other disorders, taking the stress out of shopping for both parents with children on the autism spectrum and for adults with autism."
The store's manager Rob McLean said: "We welcome the opportunity to make these small changes for customers who feel stressed or intimidated by noise and disturbance.
"We are looking forward to be able to give people with autism and their families a calmer, more positive shopping experience."


Martin McGuinness will attend a banquet hosted by the Queen during next week's state visit to Britain by Irish President Michael D Higgins.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said the decision had to be viewed against the backdrop of huge political change in recent years.
President Higgins will be joined by his wife, Sabina, and the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny.
The visit, the first by an Irish head of state, begins on 8 April.
Martin McGuinness, who is Northern Ireland's deputy first minister and a former IRA commander, refused to sit in the House of Commons - when he was an MP - because he would have had to swear an oath of allegiance to the monarch.
He shook hands with the Queen, both in private and in public, during her visit to Northern Ireland in 2012.
The handshake was regarded as a symbolic moment for the Northern Ireland peace process.
It was seen by many as one of the most significant of her reign as the IRA paramilitary group murdered the Queen's cousin, Lord Mountbatten, while he was on holiday in the Republic of Ireland in 1979.
The state banquet is to be staged at Windsor Castle, in honour of President Higgins.
During his UK visit, he will address both Houses of Parliament, another first for an Irish head of state.
Mr Higgins will also visit the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and attend another major dinner at the Guildhall in the City of London, given by the Lord Mayor.
By Martina PurdyBBC News NI Political Correspondent
As a youth, Martin McGuinness wore the uniform of an IRA volunteer - secretly, illegally and defiantly. Now, decades later, he will don a white tie and tails and publicly, cheerfully and - perhaps -still defiantly, attend the Queen's banquet at Windsor Castle.
We should not be too surprised. His journey has already seen him shake the hand of the Queen.
Not to attend the first state visit of an Irish president would undermine all his promises, made as an Irish presidential candidate, that he would work for peace.
It will put him in the company of Ireland's most senior figure, Michael D Higgins, and the presidency is a post that Sinn Féin covets.
It will also win praise in Dublin and the Republic, helping to reverse the political blunder of Sinn Féin's refusal to attend the Queen's visit to the Irish presidential residence in 2011.
And whatever votes Sinn Féin loses in Northern Ireland, if any, will be offset by potential gains in the south of Ireland.
Having conquered Northern Ireland, it is to the south that Sinn Féin's hungry eyes look for growth.
This decision is good for Martin McGuinness, peace and for Sinn Féin.
During the visit, the Queen will host a reception for leading figures from Northern Ireland's cultural, political and business life.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said the president's first UK state visit would mean "an enormous amount to the people of Ireland, but also to the people of Britain".
"Symbolically, it's of enormous importance, but also practically, in that it brings the relationship between the two countries and the two peoples to an unprecedented level.
"This was unthinkable 20 years ago," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
Regarding the Sinn Féin representative's appearance at the Queen's state banquet, Mr Kenny said: "Martin McGuinness, as deputy first minister in the assembly in Northern Ireland has been very forthright and very pragmatic in what he has been doing here.
"I don't see why he shouldn't attend, of course.  This is all part of the building of relationships between the two countries and peoples on both sides of the divide.
"We've got to move on and not be blocked by the past," the Irish prime minister added.
The visit by President Higgins follows on from the Queen's historic state visit to the Republic of Ireland in May 2011.
During her first ever trip to the Republic, the Queen laid wreaths in tribute to Irishmen who died fighting for Britain in both world wars and also for Irish rebels who died fighting for independence from British rule.
In a visit rich in symbolism, the monarch also spoke a few words in the Irish language as she addressed a state dinner in Dublin Castle, the building that had once been the seat of British rule in Ireland.


The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards is to explore his formative years in a BBC documentary and curate "an incredible weekend" for the broadcaster.

Director Julian Temple's Keith Richards - The Origin Of The Species will look at the guitarist's pre-Stones life as part of BBC Two's My Generation season.
Richards said it looked at an era when it felt like "time to push limits".
The 72-year-old will also "hand-pick" two nights of films and live performances on BBC Four.
Keith Richards' Lost Weekend will run in September and feature an interview with the Rolling Stone each night, in which he will explain his selections.
Describing Richards as an "avatar of rebellion, buccaneer, soul survivor, as well as the coolest dude on the planet", the BBC said Temple's film would be broadcast in July.
Temple said the 60-minute documentary would explore how both Richards "and the '60s in England came about".
Richards said he was "heavily" into model airplanes as a child, but was not very successful at building them, adding with a laugh that he "liked the glue".
He said during the late 1950s, "there was a feeling that there was a change coming".
"[Prime Minister] Harold Macmillan actually said it - the 'winds of change' and all that - but he didn't mean it in quite the same way.
"I certainly felt that for my generation, the feeling in the air was - it's time to push limits. The world is ours now and you can rise or fall on it."
The BBC's head of music TV commissioning, Jan Younghusband, said Richards was an "outstanding talent and an inspiration to us all".
"We are thrilled to be able to bring his unique and entertaining insights to our audience.
"I know it will be a totally original experience."
Follow us on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, on Instagram at bbcnewsents, or email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.


The Trump administration is standing firm over its ban on immigration from seven countries despite court rulings and mass protests against it.

In a statement, President Trump said visas would once again be issued once "the most secure policies" were in place, and denied it was a Muslim ban.
The move has been widely condemned.
Sixteen state attorneys general have said the order is unconstitutional. Several federal judges have temporarily halted the deportation of visa holders.
Live: Protests over ban
Mr Trump's executive order, signed on Friday, halted the entire US refugee programme for 120 days, indefinitely banned Syrian refugees, and suspended all nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Those who were already mid-flight were detained on arrival - even if they held valid US visas or other immigration permits. It is not known how many others were turned away at airports overseas as they tried to board flights to the US.
Thousands gathered at airports around the country to protest on Saturday, including lawyers who offered their services for free to those affected.
Further demonstrations were held on Sunday, including protests outside the White House and Trump Tower in New York.
As well as the ban on all refugees, travellers who have nationality or dual nationality of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen are not permitted to enter the US for 90 days, or be issued an immigrant or non-immigrant visa.
This includes those who share dual nationality with allied countries, including the UK, although Canada has been told its dual nationals are not affected.
But there remains much confusion.
The UK foreign office put out a statement saying that only those dual nationals travelling from one of the blacklisted seven countries would be subject to extra checks - those travelling between the UK and US would not be affected.
However, one Scottish veterinary student - who travels on an Iranian passport - was unable to fly home from her holiday in Costa Rica because she was told her transit visa for the US was no longer valid.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said US green-card holders - legal residents - would also not be affected, but some have been detained since the order came into effect.
Mr Trump tweeted early on Sunday that the US needed "extreme vetting, NOW" but later, in a statement, tried to offer more reassuring words, saying: "This is not about religion - this is about terror and keeping our country safe.
"We will again be issuing visas to all countries once we are sure we have reviewed and implemented the most secure policies over the next 90 days," he said.
Mr Priebus rejected criticism that the implementation of the order had been chaotic, and said only 109 people, out of 325,000 travelling, had been detained and "most of those people were moved out".
"We've got a couple of dozen more that remain and I would suspect that as long as they're not awful people that they will move through before another half a day today," he told US media on Sunday.
But they have failed to allay concern among some in their Republican party. The Republican chair of the US Senate Foreign Relations committee, Senator Bob Corker, said the executive order had been "poorly implemented", particularly for green-card holders, and the "administration should make appropriate revisions".
Democratic Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer said the US now appeared "less humanitarian, less safe, less American" and said the Democrats would introduce legislation to overturn it.
Fear, uncertainty and small acts of rebellion at Dulles airport  - BBC's Jessica Lussenhop in Washington DC
Ali worked for three years as an interpreter for the US Army and gained admittance to the US through a Special Immigrant Visa. He now has a green card, and returned to Iraq for his father's funeral, only to be delayed for hours for questioning at Dulles.
"We are not terrorists. We are not bad people," said Ali. "It's so hard. I hope they will change their minds on this position."
Read more here
In a joint statement, 16 attorneys general, from states including California, New York and Pennsylvania, said they would "use all of the tools of our offices to fight this unconstitutional order" and, until it was struck down, would "work to ensure that as few people as possible suffer from the chaotic situation that it has created".
Late on Saturday, federal Judge Ann Donnelly, in New York, ruled against the removal from the US of people with approved refugee applications, valid visas, and "other individuals... legally authorised to enter the United States".
She was ruling on a case brought on behalf of two Iraqi men with links to the US military who were detained at JFK Airport in New York, who were later released.
Elsewhere in the US:
The Department of Homeland Security has said it will continue to enforce the measures.
History will judge the long-term impact of Mr Trump's Friday afternoon immigration order, but his early praise for its implementation will not easily be forgotten.
"It's working out very nicely," he said in a brief response to a question on Saturday afternoon. On the ground at major US airports, things weren't going quite so nicely, however.
Read more on this from Anthony
Criticism of Mr Trump's decision has been growing louder outside the US.
Canada is offering temporary residence to those stranded there because of the US order, the immigration minister said. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier tweeted that Canada welcomed "those fleeing persecution, terror and war".
Iran is threatening a reciprocal ban on US citizens entering the country. Similar comments came out of Iraq, with whom the US is working to drive IS out of Mosul.
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said "even the necessary, determined fight against terrorism does not justify placing people of a certain origin or belief under general suspicion".
A spokesperson for UK PM Theresa May said she "did not agree" with the restrictions, and French independent presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron tweeted: "I stand with the people fleeing war and persecution."


As the 45th president of the United States is sworn into office, American football fans of a certain age may recall witnessing a different kind of inauguration nearly 34 years ago.

On 6 March 1983, the Los Angeles Express took on the New Jersey Generals at the LA Coliseum, and the United States Football League (USFL) was born.
It wasn't long before a tycoon named Donald Trump was adding a franchise to his burgeoning portfolio, driving the league forward with his ambitious vision.
But within three years the league had collapsed following a legal battle - instigated by Trump - with the longer-established NFL.
Those involved in the USFL saga have been telling the BBC World Service's Sportshour just what part the billionaire businessman played - and wondering whether the characteristics he displayed can tell us anything about the kind of president we can expect.
Trump had coveted an NFL team to add to his burgeoning brand, but having been thwarted in his attempts, the USFL provided the perfect vehicle.
The league offered televised professional football in the spring, in contrast to the NFL, which played in the autumn/winter.
"The league was an enormous amount of fun," says radio broadcaster Charley Steiner. "There was an anarchist quality about it going against the established NFL. Fans were really into it and the players were terrific."
The league's first game was on Sunday, 6 March, 1983. Attendances in the first season were encouraging, and owners ploughed money into the teams.
Hollywood actor Burt Reynolds invested in the Tampa Bay Bandits, while Lee Majors, famous for The Six Million Dollar Man, became a part-owner in the Los Angeles Express.
The league was attracting star players, with Herschel Walker, the top college football star at the time, choosing the USFL over the NFL when he signed for the New Jersey Generals.
But things were to change when franchise owner Walter Duncan sold the Generals to Trump.
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Duncan offered Jimmy Gould commission of $300,000 to sell the team. He told him to call 10 people worth more than $100m to sell the team for $8.5m.
"I called Donald Trump on the phone and he wouldn't take my calls," says Gould, one of the USFL founders. "I finally figured how to get through to his secretary by sending 10 pints of the famous Graeter's ice cream - and that got him on the phone.
"He chastised me for disrupting his office by sending ice cream to everyone in his office. He asked me what I wanted. I said: 'I thought you might want to own a football team in New York.' We needed a strong visible owner in New York who was willing to open his chequebook. Mr Trump was it."
Former USFL television producer Mike Tollin remembers Trump's arrival in the USFL. "This guy with funny hair, which was not yet orange, a tortured bowl of insanity, entered the picture," he says. "He had just built the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York.
"At that point he was a Donald, but not the Donald," says Steiner. "He was young, flamboyant, it was New York high society in more ways than one. He had a vision that between football, his real estate entrepreneurship and his social climbing, the USFL and a sports team was the perfect fit for his portfolio.
"On a good day he would have the back page of tabloids, he would be living on page six with the first of his three wives, and on a really good day he would have the front page. It was all part of the plan for Donald to expand the Trump brand."
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Steiner says the Generals players "loved" playing for Trump.
"He overpaid them and, secondly, and more importantly, Trump so loved the attention, so when he walked into the locker room, all of the reporters who were busy bothering the players, would just gravitate towards Donald," he adds.
"He absorbed all the press attention, which he loved and craved and lived for. The players were saying, 'this is good, they are paying me a lot of money and I do not have to worry about the media'."
Having invested his money in the spring league, Trump wanted a return and looked enviously at the hugely successful NFL.
"As soon as he bought the Generals, he started to call them the New York New Jersey Generals, which they were not," says Steiner. "He was expanding his brand, that is where he started to say we have to go head to head with the NFL."
But Tollin has a different view of Trump's motives.
"He would say if God wanted football to be played in the spring, he would not have invented baseball," added Tollin.
"We all scratched our head and said, 'why on earth are you crashing our party? You don't believe in the concept, why have you joined forces with us?' We should have known right then that the writing was on the wall. What became enormously apparent was Trump had no interest in being in a secondary or alternative league.
"He didn't have the patience or vision to watch something grow organically and develop. The NFL owners were not interested in inviting him to their party, this was his back door to engineer his way into the NFL and force their hand. He forced the USFL owners into confronting the NFL, which ultimately led to a lawsuit and the demise of the league."
By the time the USFL's third season climaxed in 1985, the league was haemorrhaging money and most of the team owners looked for a solution. Trump's plan was to prove in court that the NFL had a monopoly on winter football, one that was unfairly restricting the success of the USFL. It was the start of the end of the league.
"Who was driving the car? Thelma or Louise? I think Trump was Thelma and the other owners were Louise," says Steiner.
On 29 July 1986, a jury found in favour of Trump and the USFL, declaring the NFL was an illegal monopoly. But it was a hollow victory as, just six days later, the league effectively collapsed. Although it proved the NFL held a monopoly, it had failed to convince the jury the USFL had been restricted with the all-important and highly lucrative television rights. Instead of millions of dollars expected in damages, it was awarded just $3.76.
Steiner says: "The league, which got off to a reasonably good start and had a reasonable chance down the road, instead disappeared for a cheque for $3.76 which still exists in a safety deposit box in Memphis, Tennessee.
"If the USFL had waited one more year to go after the NFL, they would have had a far better chance of success because the NFL collective bargaining agreement was up with the players.
"So one of two things would have happened - there would have been a mass exodus from the NFL to the USFL, where there would be no strike, or the NFL would have been so frightened of the USFL, they would have had to absorb this new league.
"But neither happened, the USFL disappeared and Trump went on to his next thing and that is the thing that will always stick in my craw."
Trump's version of events? When speaking about his involvement in the USFL to the Associated Press last year, he explained how before the USFL he "was well known, but not really well known".
"After taxes, I would say I lost $3m. And I got a billion dollars of free publicity."
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"It's the great if only," says Tollin, who believes the league's expansion from 12 to 18 teams in the second season, and focusing on ABC instead of ESPN for TV rights, contributed to its downfall.
"The answer is a very strong 'maybe'. It is possible the league could have thrived.
"The owners can't be entirely held blameless, they got greedy and impatient themselves, unrelated to Donald's efforts. Whether it would have survived or not, the demise was hastened by Trump."
But Gould disagrees: "The most critical component was how much money was being lost by the USFL. When you are losing $100m a year, you are going to do something about it.
"He's not responsible, it wasn't working in terms of making money, the idea that if Trump stayed in the spring we would have been OK is not true."
So what, if anything, that happened with the USFL tells us about the type of president Trump might be?
Tollin and Steiner are not hopeful.
"He will get whatever he wants out of his project and it doesn't matter one iota what happens to those who have been victimised," says Steiner.
Tollin went on to make a documentary about the USFL which angered Trump - he called the film "extremely dishonest" and Tollin "a loser" in a letter to him.
The film-maker says he finds it hard to be positive about Trump, given their USFL experiences. "What we saw then is increasingly apparent today on a much larger and, dare I say it, a dangerous level," he says. "Character comes out and what I saw in the 80s, which is apparent today, is narcissism gone wild and self-aggrandisement at a level which I have never experienced before or since."
Gould, who says he became very close to Trump during their time together, is optimistic for his presidency.
He says: "I saw a different side to him. I have never seen a racist bone in his body, he is tough, he is smart, he studies everything, he is not afraid to ask for advice. I don't agree with everything he says, but from the standpoint of knowing him as a person, I am very fond of him. If he gives you his word, he will live up to it.
"With what we are seeing in the world today, you need somebody with a strong vision who is not afraid to be politically incorrect - that is a terminology for if you believe in something strongly enough, you go after it regardless whether it is popular or not."
You can listen to the full episode of Sportshour on the BBC World Service on Saturday, 21 January at 10:06 GMT, download the podcast or listen to it here.


A Canadian opposition MP has accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of "giving false hope to people crossing the border".

MP Michelle Rempel said on Wednesday that a refugee-friendly message is misleading asylum seekers about how welcoming the country is to claimants.
More than 11,300 people have illegally entered Canada from the US this year.
The influx coincides with the election of US President Donald Trump, who stood on an anti-immigration platform.
Mr Trudeau, on the other hand, has spoken of Canada welcoming refugees, saying in January: "To all those fleeing persecution, terror and war, Canadians will welcome you."
But in the first two weeks of August, more than 3,600 people crossed into the country from the US. As a result, processing and sheltering the migrants has put a strain on government resources.
Ms Rempel, who is in charge immigration issues in the Conservative shadow cabinet, said Mr Trudeau's Liberal party had no real plan in place to tackle the problem.
"Our system now is in shambles," she said.
Ms Rempel pointed to a June report from the Canadian Press on a government document suggesting refugee claimants could face up to an 11-year wait for a hearing if asylum claims continue to rise.
The MP pointed Mr Trudeau's January message as feeding the myth that receiving refugee status in Canada is easy.
End of Twitter post  by @JustinTrudeau
On Wednesday Mr Trudeau held a meeting with a task force on irregular migration in Montreal, Quebec - the province which has taken the brunt of the surge in border crossings.
The city's Olympic stadium is sheltering hundreds of migrants, while a temporary tent city for migrants in neighbouring Ontario is expected to stay open for two months and house about 500 people.
But while Mr Trudeau praised the government for "doing a very good job" increasing the speed with which claims were being processed, he echoed the tougher tone the Canadian authorities have been taking in recent weeks.
"Canada is an open and welcoming society because Canadians have confidence in our immigration system and have confidence that we are a country based on laws," Mr Trudeau told reporters.
"You will not be at an advantage if you choose to enter Canada irregularly. You must follow the rules and there are many."
The  government has been warning would-be asylum seekers that people who do not have legitimate asylum claims face deportation.
Many of those crossing the border are Haitians who fear that the Trump administration in the US would remove their temporary protected status, brought in following the 2010 earthquake, from deportation. It expires in 2018.
However, Reuters news agency said Canada fears a "huge surge" because people from El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras also face losing their protected status in the US next year.


Inverness Caledonian Thistle have agreed terms with Irish forward Dean Ebbe on a deal subject to international clearance.

"We look forward to welcoming Dean to the club," Inverness tweeted.
The 22-year-old was previously with Shamrock Rovers and most recently with Bluebell United in the Leinster Senior League.
He has also featured in the League of Ireland for Longford Town and Athlone Town.
Like the other 11 Scottish Premiership clubs, bottom side Caley Thistle are currently on their winter break and return to action when they visit Elgin City in the Scottish Cup on 21 January.