00:00Chris, good morning to you, sir.
00:02Good morning, Ian.
00:03Nice to have you with us.
00:05I mean, there's an awful lot of areas of these current Iranian strikes
00:11that have naturally informed our agenda here this morning.
00:14But a word, if you would, Chris, on this ongoing,
00:18what seems dismantling of our good relationship with the United States.
00:22Donald Trump overnight posting yet again, you know,
00:26the Brits have let us down, we don't need their assistance anymore,
00:31they've joined a war that's already been won, he said.
00:35Well, I'm afraid to say that Keir Starmer and the Labour government
00:39have undermined the special relationship with the USA.
00:42It's a really important relationship for trade, for commerce,
00:45and, of course, for defence and security,
00:48because Europe relies to some extent on America's protective umbrella.
00:52And Keir Starmer has now undermined that.
00:54He undermined it, firstly, by refusing to allow the Americans
00:59to use our bases, RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia,
01:02when the Americans wanted to, to land and take off their planes.
01:06I think that was a very foolish thing to do.
01:09And then, secondly, Keir Starmer and the Labour government
01:12didn't put into place British warships
01:16that could have assisted with protecting Cyprus
01:19and protecting the Gulf states, countries like Kuwait,
01:22Oman, Qatar and the UAE, against Iranian attack.
01:26And that was a dereliction of duty by Labour,
01:29because they knew three weeks ago, at least three weeks ago,
01:32that this conflict was coming.
01:34They knew because America requested use of our bases.
01:37So they knew it was happening.
01:38And what they should have done is move those warships
01:41into theatre three weeks ago.
01:43But as it happens, they're still, alongside in Portsmouth,
01:48waiting to depart.
01:50So on two fronts there, I'm afraid the Labour government
01:54have undermined a special relationship
01:55and let down our allies in the Gulf.
01:57Has it irredeemably ruined the relationship?
02:02I mean, Mr Trump does say quite a lot of stuff.
02:04He has a row with somebody.
02:06He gave, you know, Zelensky a bit of a pasting in the Oval Office,
02:09and ten minutes later, they're breaking bread together.
02:12So things can change.
02:14I mean, can Starmer, can the Labour government
02:17somehow rebuild what appears to be
02:20a very disgruntled American president?
02:23He's not letting this go,
02:24and it still seems that his angst is based on that very first day
02:28when Starmer turned him down.
02:30Hmm.
02:32Yeah, well, I mean, I'm sceptical that this weak Labour government
02:36will turn things round because Keir Starmer and the government
02:40is more interested in, you know, Lord Hermer's very,
02:44he's the Attorney General,
02:45very wide-ranging interpretation of human rights
02:47than in standing up for British national interests
02:50or standing up for our allies.
02:52That's why they're doing ridiculous things
02:53like giving away the Chagos Islands.
02:56In fact, not only giving them away,
02:57but paying £35 billion of our money in order to do that,
03:03which, ironically, the Mauritius government are going to use
03:06to pay for a tax cut in Mauritius.
03:08That's the only tax cut Keir Starmer has ever funded
03:11in his entire life.
03:12So, so long as they keep doing weak things like that,
03:14so long as they fail to stand up to China,
03:17you know, they gave China that super embassy
03:18and they haven't put China on the top tier
03:22of the monitoring system, you know,
03:25they're weak on China.
03:27They've been weak on Iran as well.
03:29So long as this Labour government keep being weak
03:31in the face of our adversaries, it's not going to be very good
03:34for the special relationship.
03:35It's also not good for British national security
03:38or British national interests either,
03:41that they're more interested in Lord Herman's views
03:43on human rights and international law
03:44than they are in standing up for British interests.
03:47By the way, the same goes for our border security.
03:49You know, we need to come out of the ECHR
03:51so that we can deport foreign criminals
03:53and so we can deport illegal immigrants,
03:55but the Labour government is too weak to do that as well.
03:57As the shadow Home Secretary, Chris,
03:59have you been able or will you be able to put the,
04:03what I think is an unarguable point to the Home Secretary
04:08about the current, surely elevated threat
04:12of channel migration, given what has happened,
04:15given that there are always a percentage of men
04:18on those boats that have come from Iran,
04:20airports are on heightened alert when it comes to security,
04:23railway stations, everywhere we're told,
04:25be careful, there is a war on.
04:27And yet, each day we still have,
04:30particularly when the weather's good,
04:32hundreds of men coming over on a weekly basis
04:34on the English Channel.
04:37Right now, you might think there'd be
04:38a very specific focus on that story.
04:42Well, there should be.
04:44I mean, last year, 41,000 people crossed the channel illegally.
04:48Most of them were young men.
04:50Of course, none were fleeing war,
04:52because France is a safe country.
04:53There's no war going on in France.
04:55And the Labour government's approach
04:56and Shabana Mahmood's approach is far too weak.
04:59They're just letting them in.
05:00They're putting them up in hotels,
05:02costing £4 billion a year.
05:03Now, what we should be doing is coming out of the ECHR,
05:07and that would, the European Convention on Human Rights,
05:09and that would allow us to deport these illegal immigrants
05:13within a week of arrival,
05:15either back to their country of origin, if that's possible,
05:18or to a safe third country like Rwanda,
05:20if it is not possible.
05:22And pretty quickly, if we did that,
05:24the illegal immigrants would stop crossing the channel,
05:27because why would you bother crossing the channel
05:28if you're quickly going to get removed?
05:30Indeed.
05:30But right now, there is clearly an increased threat.
05:34There has to be, by any measure, an increased threat.
05:37Can you put a question, perhaps in Parliament,
05:40written or otherwise, Chris, to the Home Secretary,
05:43on this basis, that surely anyone crossing the channel
05:47since last Saturday, ideally,
05:49but we can't do anything about those
05:50that have already been put into hotels,
05:52but anyone crossing the channel now,
05:54during the backdrop of a war with Iran,
05:57has to be detained?
06:01Well, I think channel migrants who cross the channel illegally
06:04should be detained anyway,
06:06whether from Iran or from anywhere else,
06:08detained and deported.
06:10But yes, I will be putting that point to the Home Secretary
06:12at the next opportunity in Parliament,
06:14because there is a risk that this Iranian situation
06:17triggers even more illegal immigration.
06:19And, of course, what some people will do
06:21is they will pretend to come from Iran,
06:23even though they don't.
06:25We saw that in the past,
06:26where people went into, for example, Germany in 2015,
06:29pretending to be Syrian,
06:31when in fact they weren't.
06:32So we need to be alive to that as well.
06:33Just a quick word, Chris Philp,
06:35on these protests we are seeing.
06:37We've seen campus protests,
06:39where way too many universities, frankly,
06:41have allowed all sorts of mourning festivals
06:44to take place for the death of the leader
06:46of a medieval death cult in Iran,
06:48on the Ayatollah.
06:49But we've seen it on our streets.
06:51I think on Wednesday we saw it in Manchester,
06:53nearly 1,000 people showing up.
06:55On Friday we saw it in Birmingham.
06:57Death to the IDF, burning of Israeli flags,
07:00all manner of other unpleasant things muttered.
07:02It appears it gets a free pass.
07:04Your comments on that, please.
07:07Well, it shouldn't.
07:08I mean, people should not be mourning
07:10the death of the Ayatollah
07:12because he presided over a barbaric regime
07:15which in just the last few weeks alone
07:17has murdered 35,000 of its own citizens in cold blood.
07:22They've been oppressing women
07:23for years and years and years.
07:25It is a despicable regime.
07:28Nobody should be expressing support for it
07:30or for the Ayatollah as an individual
07:33given he has just been murdering
07:35tens of thousands of his own citizens.
07:37And those events should not be allowed to go ahead,
07:40in my view.
07:40Chris Philp, thank you for your time, sir.
07:42Have a great Sunday.
07:43Chris Philp, MP Shadow, Home Secretary,
07:45with us live on College Green.
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