Is that a possibility, do you think?

Look, I mean, I, I can't-- I don't want to speculate in terms of the future.

What I know is that in opposition, I was really clear that we would reconnect with Europe.

I was the first Foreign Secretary back around the table with European foreign secretaries, because in the end, both in terms of our largest trading partner, in terms of the war in Ukraine, and a whole raft of issues, it is hugely important that we are properly engaged alongside our European partners.

That's the direction of travel that I set out.

It was predicated very clearly on the manifesto and the red lines that we laid out in that manifesto.

Uh, I'm not gonna predict where policy might lead to in the years ahead, but I'm very, very proud of the work that I've led to reconnect with our European partners.

Finally, when you look back at Keir Starmer's time in office, do you feel he got too sucked into dealing with foreign policy to the detriment of domestic issues?

Mm

... that the United States is seeing Europeans step up In terms of our commitment to defense and to spend across Europe, I think we must recognize the progress that we're seeing from Ukraine on the battlefield.

We also see in Russia recession beginning to bite, um, a huge casualty loss now of soldiers, well over a million, uh, dying.

Uh, and so I think we also recognize that this is the moment to keep Ukraine in the fight, to increase aggre- um, uh, our, our suppression, if you like, of, uh, what the Russians are doing, and to support Ukraine to the very end.

... with the rest of the G7?

We, we're, we're really clear.

We have ramped up our sanctions.

You saw also the interdiction from the UK, uh, of the Russian shadow fleet just a few weeks ago.

David Lammy, what were your feelings as you watched the death of Henry Novak?

Trevor, many years ago I was out with police in Camden when a young man was stabbed and I remember standing alongside him and in a sense seeing that footage of Henry Novak at the end of his life was deeply, deeply traumatic.

I thought of my own sons around the same age.

It brought back memories of George Floyd, of Stephen Lawrence.

I just, it was so painful, so harrowing, so horrendous and my heart goes out to that family for the grace and dignity with which they are now having to conduct their lives sort of in the full lights basically of not just UK attention on this but now global attention on this desperate, desperate tragedy.

How'd you feel when you heard that?

Sickened.

They lied.

but deputy prime minister if you say you should have rights why is consultation necessary

Well, we've got to consult to get it right.

So, for example, we're saying that if you've been in an enduring relationship for three years, that's about the right length where those rights should happen.

If you've got kids...

Two years where a court would look at both the needs of the couple.

They'd certainly look very closely if there are children involved.

What are the circumstances in which those rights kick in? That's the balance we've struck.

Come on, David Lanny.

How do you understand the similarity between his time as prime minister and the world that we find ourselves in now?

I, I just think having served in both governments, now it is important to say that obviously I served in the Tony Blair government as a junior minister.

Clearly in this government, um, uh, you know, I'm right in the driving seat of power alongside, um, the PM, but there are big differences.

Uh, uh, the, the central difference is the economic inheritance.

Um, you know, when I look back on the Tony Blair era, it was, um, every single year we had growth, um, in the economy.

There were poor public services, but growth in the economy.

Uh, our inheritance this time is chronically underfunded public services and a very bad economy, and in fact, an economic, uh, um, downturn that's really been happening since two thousand and eight.

I feel like I do anyway, and I'd invite you to talk about this, whether or not we've lost sight of the fact that there's a very significant ethnic minority portion of people in this country who are themselves victims of crime as well, and I just don't know whether that's fully recognized in our national media discourse.

At the end of this incredibly turbulent week, people will want to step back and sort of ask a question: What just happened? Have we just seen a desperately uncomfortable public row in the NATO family, or have we seen a long-term rupture of the transatlantic relationship?

I don't think we've seen a rupture, but we are amidst changed.

Um, why is it changing? It is changing, I think, for two subset reasons.

The central reason is that the United States is no longer the sole superpower.

China sits alongside them, and as a consequence of that, the Indo-Pacific, um, is the other half of the US brain, and that has consequences for the transatlantic, and it has consequences for Europe.

Um, it means that over this next century, Europe will be playing a much bigger role, leading within NATO, I suspect.

Um, and of course, there are gonna be bumps along the way in relation to that.

So when I said in the introduction, America is a country that you probably have more knowledge of than almost anybody around the Cabinet table, perhaps anybody, that's because it's part of you and your story.

At the end of this incredibly turbulent week, people will want to step back and sort of ask a question: What just happened? Have we just seen a desperately uncomfortable public row in the NATO family, or have we seen a long-term rupture of the transatlantic relationship?

I don't think we've seen a rupture, but we are amidst change.

Um, why is it changing? It is changing, I think, for two subset reasons.

The central reason is that the United States is no longer the sole superpower.

China sits alongside them, and as a consequence of that, the Indo-Pacific, um, is the other half of the US brain, and that has consequences for the transatlantic, and it has consequences for Europe.

Um, it means that over this next century, Europe will be playing a much bigger role, leading within NATO, I suspect.

Um, and of course, there are gonna be bumps along the way in relation to that.

So when I said in the introduction, America is a country that you probably have more knowledge of than almost anybody around the Cabinet table, perhaps anybody, that's because it's part of you and your story.

Do people want to be magistrates?

They do want to be magistrates.

Ma...

When we advertise, people do want to be magistrates.

It's a bit tough sometimes on the self-employed, if you see what I mean.

We haven't got enough self-employed magistrates.

A lot of them work in the public sector.

Whose fault was that?

Mm.

I mean, it's like an epidemic.

They just disappeared off the streets, and, um, you heard stories of being beaten up badly by the police, being framed, but you also knew that there was a lot of criminality.

Casual, petty criminality, but it, nevertheless it was criminality.

Um, and so prison was this deep fear of being locked up, taken away, out of control, and it did, did, uh, f- f- for my, my youthful imagination landed on this, and it, it, it, it...

And, and it stayed in my head for, for many, many years.

And, I guess, um, a, a trip that I made to, to a prison, I think it was Maidstone, um, uh, very, I must've been, you know, 10 or 12, um, stayed with me.

How frustrated have you been by the things that you can't do? And, and most obviously with, with reference to Gaza and, um, the, the, the difference between being in opposition and being in power?