Sunday shows round-up: Mahmood says she ‘respects’ Burnham before ban

Andy Burnham blocked from standing as MP

Andy Burnham was seeking permission to run as an MP for the upcoming Gorton and Denton by-election. Keir Starmer’s allies feared a leadership challenge from Burnham if he did become an MP, although Burnham himself has stated he wants to support the government, ‘not undermine it’. The Manchester Mayor had to be granted permission to stand as an MP by the officers of Labour’s national executive committee, whose chair is Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. On Sky News this morning, Mahmood said Labour had to avoid indulging in a ‘psychodrama’. On the BBC, Mahmood told Laura Kuenssberg that Burnham had been an ‘excellent member of parliament’ in the past, but she claimed she did not want to sway the NEC’s decision. Kuenssberg noted that other senior Labour figures had made it clear that Burnham should be allowed to run, while Downing Street sees ‘nothing but risk’. Mahmood said there will be ‘different perspectives’, and that her job is to make sure all those perspectives are heard at the debate. Two hours after this interview, news broke that Burnham has indeed been blocked from the by-election race.

Ed Davey: ‘We’re in a Cold War-type scenario’

Laura Kuenssberg asked Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey about Donald Trump rowing back on his previous suggestion that Nato troops stayed away from the frontlines during the conflict in Afghanistan. In a social media post on Saturday, Trump wrote that UK soldiers were ‘among the greatest of all warriors’. Davey said Trump’s original statement was ‘appalling’, and that although there is a ‘sense of relief’ that he changed his tone, it doesn’t change his ‘view of Donald Trump’. Kuenssberg asked if Trump is ‘fundamentally right about defence’. Davey said no, because Trump has ‘supported Putin in some aspects of Ukraine’, but he agreed with Trump that Europe needs to increase defence spending. Davey said the Lib Dems have called on the government to ‘issue war bonds’, to allow the country to increase defence spending more quickly, and claimed we are in ‘Cold War-type scenario’ with Russia. The Lib Dem leader argued that with Trump in office, the US is no longer a ‘reliable ally’.

Priti Patel: Tory Party scrutiny has delayed ‘absolute disgrace’ of Chagos Islands deal

Trevor Phillips also spoke to Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel about the government’s decision to cancel a House of Lords debate on the Chagos Islands deal. Phillips suggested that it was in fact President Trump, rather than Conservative pressure, who forced the government’s hand. This week Trump described the deal as a ‘great act of stupidity’, despite previously agreeing to it. Patel said that was wrong, and that she has led the work on the ‘forensic scrutiny’ of the deal, including the 1966 treaty between the UK and the US that ‘clearly says’ the UK is sovereign over the territory. Phillips argued that it is still the ‘American weight in the background’ creating an impasse. Patel said that the military base on the island of Diego Garcia is crucial for the security of the West, and that Keir Starmer’s ‘weakness’ led to a deal where the UK would spend ‘£35bn’ and have reduced national security.

Andy Street: ‘It’s not a party, it’s a movement’

Conservatives Andy Street and Ruth Davidson also appeared on Laura Kuenssberg’s show to launch their new centre-right movement. Street argued that there are ‘millions of people on the centre, centre-right, who don’t feel… that there is a party representing them’. He said their movement will talk to businesses and focus on the economy and ‘bread and butter issues’. Kuenssberg asked why the Conservative Party isn’t currently representing those people. Davidson said Kemi Badenoch was addressing the economy ‘more and more’, but polling suggests seven million people on the centre-right say no political party represents them. Kuenssberg asked if they believed Badenoch should still lead the party. Street claimed they are ‘committed Conservatives’ who believe Badenoch should be the next prime minister, but it is ‘consistent’ to recognise ‘there is a lot of ground’ that the Conservative Party has to recover.

Shabana Mahmood: ‘policing the so-called culture war [is] not what our police are for’

The home secretary has announced a new National Police Service, dubbed a ‘British FBI’, which will take over responsibility for counter-terror and organised crime investigations, to allow local forces to focus on policing their neighbourhoods. The reforms will also give ministers more powers to intervene when police chiefs are deemed to be failing. On Sky News, Trevor Phillips noted that police will investigate people over social media posts but not deal with car thefts, and asked if there was an issue with priorities in the police forces. Mahmood agreed that this damages confidence in the police. The home secretary said the reforms are designed to improve ‘visible neighbourhood policing’ and make sure that people feel safe.

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