Is that something you think that could be a really positive part of the mix and cement that relationship? Sam,

you're absolutely on the money here.

We have a 100-year partnership with Ukraine.

Ukraine is a bit like computing power.

It's doubling in power every 24 months in its capacity in the defence industry.

The way it uses uncrewed systems, drones, land, sea and air, data in particular, and then AI machine learning on the data to make its systems smarter.

It's leading the world in the hardest electronic warfare spectrum.

Now, I know you're very strongly opposed to reform, and I think you've made a really important case about being Labour and being patriotic and how these people are actually... you know complete grifters and not at all patriotic at all but if you were saying to the new prime minister that this is the one thing i think you could do is there something you would do beyond sort of defense beyond kind of those three three things one is education i think we should be an

One is education.

I think we should be an education superpower for my kids, your kids, kids across the country.

They should have every opportunity that perhaps I didn't have or other people shouldn't have.

So they should go to school and be inundated with opportunities both during school and after school time.

The second one is health, and it's linked to education.

We should aim to be the healthiest nation in Europe by 2034.

If you really want to reduce the burden on the NHS, reduce your mental health bill, reduce some of the physical problems that we have in society, reduce council rates, you've got to think about how we do health slightly different.

Well, these were some of the sorts of questions I put to Al Khan and indeed the state of the UK's defence readiness when I caught up with him.

I mean, just give me a, talk me through that, Will.

Well, you know, five tours in Afghanistan.

And there were some, I was right at the very start.

So we came in and took over from the parachute crew.

16th Air Assault Brigade who were there first.

So right the first sort of first or second tour and then all the way through.

And it was exceptionally kinetic.

Do you worry about the jobs that they did in the oil industry? might not be around.

How accurate would that summation be, Mr. Carter? So this country

is a beacon of hope across the world.

We often see ourselves as three foot tall.

The rest of the world sees us as eight foot tall.

We must, at all costs, keep this country together.

The United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, all together as one moving forward in the right direction.

That's got to be a central cohering policy of any government.

election.

Does that mean perhaps taking a look at the so-called welfare budget?

I think it needs a look at everything.

First of all, we could have the honest conversation.

20% of the country sort of recognise that we're in a very difficult geopolitical situation with lots of different threats.

I would like to increase that 20% to easy over 50% of the population, recognising that the problems abroad... impact us here in the UK, whether that's inflation around food pricing, whether that's the Middle East on fuel, and recognise that if we don't have a strong armed forces, we can't actually have any leverage over those decisions.

And so spending on one protects the other.

What now for Sakhir Starmer? Is he held below the water?

Well, I think Keir Starmer's got to work with Rachel Rees, with Dan Jarvis, and just focus on Dan.