National Security Advisor

As a former Director of National Security for the Middle East in the Foreign Office, he had a deep understanding of the security implications.

More remarkably, Jonathan Powell, the National Security Advisor, was of the same view.

He was the most important figure in government on foreign policy during Keir Starmer's premiership, but now it seems he's been ignored on the first major issue of Burnham's tenure.

What Powell and Walters sense was that Benjamin Netanyahu, the combative Israeli Prime Minister, was in trouble in the polls and likely to lose his majority, and that any intervention before polling day would be weaponised by the Israeli right to drum up support for the government.

And so it, they were kind of underlining the point that actually it's a death trap.

Ju- just on a serious point on this, what did you make of the story, I think it was either today or yesterday, that Jonathan Powell, who is the Prime Minister's National Security Advisor, he recommended that they didn't do this, um, uh, Ed Miliband announcement last week because they thought it could actually enhance Netanyahu's...

Or it would be interfering in Israeli politics and mean that Netanyahu could be strengthened.

And yet Miliband and Burnham totally went against the advice of the National Security Advisor.

We know historically that, and there's several examples of this, when Obama tried to meddle in Brexit, when Tusk also-

Yeah

The truth is I don't know.

I don't know how it will play.

[bell ringing] A Russian drone strikes a train station near Ukraine's border with Poland.

An hour prior, senior Western diplomats were there, including the UK's National Security Advisor.

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Russia is escalating its conflict with Ukraine, and its new tactics involve targeting trains and border crossings.

Early this morning, a special train was heading west, carrying VIPs home from a high-level conference in Kyiv.

The organizers said on board were Jonathan Powell, the National Security Advisor, and his French, German, and Italian counterparts.

Boris Johnson was traveling, too.

The Americans were no longer acting like a collective steward of the West's interests, balancing different opinions between Europe and America, uh, on issues like Israel-Palestine or, uh, like Ukraine, but were acting erratically, unpredictably, emotionally, and above all, unilaterally.

So what now three Labour foreign secretaries and two Labour prime ministers and one, uh, Labour national security advisor, uh, Jonathan Powell, have tried to do is very quietly, if not silently-

Mm

... try and build non-American led coalitions within the West to present the United States either with a fait accompli or with an alternative course of action and drag it towards that direction.

Mm

... to Trump at, at, at his sort of bizarre press con-- uh, his bizarre, almost feudal press conferences.

Well, also, I think in s- in part, the confusion among journalists is because you mentioned Jonathan Powell, our National Security Advisor.

We have his on the record thoughts on the US relationship from his book-

Absolutely right.

That has to contain relevant Cabinet ministers, foreign defence, chancellors always on it, and Prime Minister and the National Security Advisor as a civil servant.

And, you know, ministers as the Attorney General, for example, will be on that.

You need a domestic committee.