We have seen the Israeli government nibble away at Palestinian land over and over again using violence i mean this should have been done frankly at the very least you know two years ago oh

no i agree with you i don't listen we don't disagree on this and some of us as i say have been campaigning on this issue for years um remember also when people tell you because they will oh you can't tell the difference between something which comes from the west bank and something which comes from israel proper or there might be a mixture remember this We have a trade agreement with Israel, and that trade agreement is preferential treatment for Israeli goods, but only Israeli goods on the right side of the green line and not the occupied territories.

And the Israelis have signed up to that.

So they recognize that the two areas are different.

And what happens is if people want to import from Israel, they have to say it's from Israel proper and not from the West Bank in order to be able to get the preferential tariffs.

So, all we're doing is extending that and now saying we are not going to have any goods from the West Bank.

And probably more importantly, we are warning companies that there are about to be very serious sanctions against any company that finances, that gives any services to, that assists the building of flats and settlements in illegally occupied territory.

Could that be what this is about in terms of timing to make sure that the Labour Party doesn't lose Sir Keir Starmer's seat?

Well, Emily Thornberry, I'm sure this is something that will be crossing your desk on the Select Committee.

I've said it before about how Cabrillo says, again, the man's an idiot.

He doesn't know what he's talking about.

The idea that standing up for a two-state solution is somehow due hate shows he doesn't know what he's talking about.

And I have no idea why he is representative of America in...

in Israel.

The international community is pretty much unanimous in believing that the only way forward, the only chance of a safe and secure Israel is for there to be justice for the Palestinians as well and for them to have their own state.

And in this country in particular, we have just had more and more incidents incidents happening uh gold is green there were four incidents i believe in april 2026 alone there have been so many incidents of hatred and violence in this country that i don't remember growing up as a little girl obviously there were some here and there but i do think that the ante has really upped in the last couple of years personally

But this is also a very serious test for British democracy, the British state and the authorities and their ability to enforce the law.

Absolutely.

So I got involved with this through the Foreign Affairs Committee because we started looking at what was happening in other European countries and particularly Russian money, but also individuals, particularly American individuals, trying to influence democracies within Europe.

And time and time again, we heard about it.

And then when I heard about the extent to which there was interference in Germany, I started to realize this was really serious.

So we did an investigation.

And so much of it we recognized, not necessarily on the same scale in the UK, but we are so vulnerable.

You know, do you think the same applies here in 2026? I'm not saying Farage is guilty of anything, but were he to be found against in a civil case by the Electoral Commission or in a criminal case by the Police and Crown Prosecution Service? Does that finish him or is it not as straightforward as that?

Do you think Labour gets

the message that the bill's too big? I think the way I would approach it is it's an absolute tragedy that we have so many people who are unemployed at that age.

And actually, I think we have to change the attitude of employers.

I think there are jobs out there and they complain they can't employ people.

And yet we have all these people who are unemployed.

And I think you need to employ people who might take a bit of managing to get them used to a job.

A bit of what? A bit of managing.

But the fact he's come in with an ambitious agenda and said things that have clearly resonated with the public as well, I think is a good start.

Donald Trump about, isn't it? Is that a blueprint for Andy Burnham going forward?

Can I just roll you back even before that and just say that remember what it was like two years ago when Labour came into power.

We were a laughing stock.

We had had some fairly ridiculous foreign secretaries.

People would openly laugh at Britain and they felt that we had been doing ourselves deliberate self-harm that we had retired into ourselves that we were just fighting one another and we had disappeared and we are back on the international stage so I kind of want to start with that and just mark actually a completely change of presence of Britain internationally and we are very welcome on the international stage because generally we're seen as a force for good so I just want to start with that.

But not to not answer your question.

I think that it's obviously Keir began with trying to be a Trump whisperer.

I mean, did he get it right on the Middle East?

Dame Emily Thornberry, who chairs the committee, has been speaking to Times Radio.

I think it's quite clear from the evidence that Number Ten pushed this really, really fast and was pushing all opposition out of the way, and did it in the wrong order so that they ended up doing the security vetting right at the end, once everybody knew that Mandelson had got the job, once he was on the payroll, once the president had agreed to it and the King had agreed to it, and, you know, and everything else.

And then it was like almost the afterthought was the security vetting.

Why should you have a say in who's going to be an ambassador? Good morning.

Good morning, good morning.

I'm not saying that we should have a say in the appointment of every ambassador.

Most ambassadors are appointed in-house by the Foreign Office and they are career diplomats.

But if the government wants to appoint someone politically who will add something, then I think that just as we hold the government to account on everything else as MPs, We should hold this to account and people should come before us and we should understand why it is that they are being appointed as opposed to a career diplomat.

And so the public can see as well.

You know, we will have an open session.

How much damage was done to him by the Mandelson scandal or Mandelson affair? Dame Emily.

[laughs]

Because the, because the foreign secretary said that she had six priorities for the Foreign Office: security, growth and resilience, migration, development and climate, women and girls, agile alliances, and that the FCDO 2030 reform program, um, was to fit into that.

And there's, uh, and obviously there's the general priority, which is, uh, which is international law.

I mean, I would just start...

I mean, so that's what she said.

I would say that I would start with the obvious, which is that, um, post-Brexit, um, during Trump, the most important thing for the Foreign Office to do is to ensure that we are as close as we can be to like-minded countries of a similar size and clout, that we continue to strengthen multilateralism, and that that actually might be a positive that might come out of Trump, um, and that we, you know, we need to continue to do that.

Um, we need to remember that we have actually quite a lot of clout in terms of our reputation and our history, um, with particular countries.

[laughs]

[laughs]

Because the, because the Foreign Secretary said that she had six priorities for the Foreign Office: security, growth and resilience, migration, development and climate, women and girls, agile alliances, and that the FCDO 2030 reform program, um, was to fit into that.

And there's, uh, and obviously there's the general priority, which is, uh, which is international law.

I mean, I would just start...

I mean, so that's what she said.

I would say that I would start with the obvious, which is that, um, post-Brexit, um, during Trump, the most important thing for the Foreign Office to do is to ensure that we are as close as we can be to like-minded countries of a similar size and clout, that we continue to strengthen multilateralism, and that that actually might be a positive that might come out of Trump, um, and that we, you know, we need to continue to do that.

Um, we need to remember that we have actually quite a lot of clout in terms of our reputation and our history, um, with particular countries.

[laughs]

I mean, what message does it send to the UK's adversaries?

Uh, we are, I mean, we're clearly having a real struggle, um, to know quite how to deal with this because, you know, we started off with this massive great black hole that we inherited from the Conservatives and forty-seven out of forty-nine projects either over budget or behind.

So we had to kind of m- sort that out, and then we had this review, which was going to cost a huge amount of money.

We have a Ministry of Defence, which has many strengths, but, um, an ability to keep to a budget isn't really one of them.

And, and what they do, they do expect-- They don't expect people to say no to them, um, in the way that, in the way that education and health are too often have to.

So it's definitely difficult.

And then we have in front of us, before our very eyes, a war going on in Europe, which shows us what modern wolf-- warfare looks like.

... of the Molly Rose Foundation, Andy Burrows, said it was a gamble on an unenforceable social media ban that will quickly unravel.

Just take us through that.

Yeah.

It was a...

I mean, I think it was part of a pattern of behavior.

I think that the previous permanent undersecretary, Philip Barton, who left in early January, had been, well, what sounded like bullied, basically, you know.

And then, and then the new permanent undersecretary was talking about having, you know, daily interaction with Number Ten, um, phone calls and, and various things, and it was quite clear from Number Ten that they wanted Peter Mandelson appointed, and it was up to the Foreign Office, and the Foreign Office should just fucking get on with it, basically, is what Morgan McSweeney is, is alleged to have said.

And the behavior or the way in which, you know, you look at the evidence that you, that we actually see in front of us.

Do you think Olly Robbins was bullied too?

'Cause he worked for, what, the UN's oldest peacekeeping mission for a while.

So he was...

So he went in, and he was...

First of all, he was brought in because he had strong connections with a, with an organization called SWAPO, which was the, which was the South West African People's Organization.

He had strong connections with Namibia and with South Africa and, uh, and he'd been, and he had many friends there and real insight.

And he, he first got involved with the UN because it was hoped that there was going to be a peacekeeping mission go into South West Africa as then and, and transform it.

Things slipped, and he ended up doing other peacekeeping work.

You've said that already.But there's gotta be more clarity, there's gotta be more vision.

That because Iran has been prosecuting a war against Israel and against the West for that period, is this not legal because it is a perhaps delayed reaction to the ongoing threat of Iran?

I think it's a stretch.

The 800 people, I think, in Iran have died over the last few days.

And the war that has started, we just don't know how it's going to end.

We're obviously really concerned, looking at it, that there's going to be chaos across the whole of the Middle East.

And listen, I mean, we had the Iranian ambassador come before the select committee and we gave him a fairly hard time.

And this was in the summer during the 12-day war.

So why not take this opportunity, whatever Trump's motives, to bring down a regime that you yourself have said is corrupt and grotesque and needs to go?

Now, the easy thing to do would be for the Home Secretary to withdraw his citizenship, I guess, but do you think that should happen?

So, I think everybody has been campaigning to get this guy out of Egyptian jails.

He did for 10 years, he was for 10 years being thrown into jail, came out for a couple of months, being thrown back in again.

Um, and he was campaigning for democracy and for human rights in Egypt.

Um, so people around the world, presidents and, and prime ministers, you know, were all campaigning for this.

And then he was given British citizenship, and so we had particular responsibility for him.

Um, the Conservatives campaigned for him to be released as much as, as we did.

Burning down Downing Street?

And after the break, we'll be asking, has Starmer bought peace with the Labor Party with this move? We'll be talking to the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

Committee.Let's be real.

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