Lisa Nandy: The future of Greenland is ‘for the people of Greenland’
President Trump has escalated his rhetoric over Greenland, threatening NATO allies, including the UK, with tariffs if a deal to buy the territory is not reached. The president reacted to NATO countries sending troops to Greenland by calling it ‘a very dangerous situation for the safety, security and survival of our planet’. On Saturday evening, Keir Starmer called Trump’s tariff threats ‘completely wrong’, and this morning on Sky News Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy echoed the prime minister’s words. Nandy said the future of Greenland is for Denmark and Greenland to determine ‘alone’, and that the US and its NATO allies need to be working together. Trevor Phillips asked if the UK would ever support a US purchase of the territory. Nandy said the UK would never support ‘anything that the people of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark didn’t support themselves’.
Richard Tice: ‘Robert [Jenrick] is a great new asset to Reform’
Robert Jenrick became another high-profile Conservative defection to Reform this week, after being preemptively sacked by Kemi Badenoch, who said Nigel Farage was doing her ‘spring cleaning’ for her. On Laura Kuenssberg’s panel this morning, former chancellor Jeremy Hunt called the move ‘so irresponsible and so dangerous’, because the right-wing vote might be split at the next election. In an interview with Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice, Kuenssberg asked if he trusted Reform’s new recruit. Tice said he did trust that Jenrick believes in Reform’s principles and values, and argued that Jenrick brings ministerial experience to the party. Tice claimed the defection shows that Reform are the real opposition to Labour. Kuenssberg asked if Tice would like to see Jenrick as Nigel Farage’s chancellor. Tice said Reform have a ‘multitude of talent’, and they are focussed on winning in the May elections, before calling the postponement of some of those elections ‘utterly disgraceful’.
Lisa Nandy on cancelled local elections: ‘It just serves people better’
On GB News, Camilla Tominey asked Lisa Nandy why ‘four million people’ are having their local elections cancelled in Essex, suggesting that the reason is Labour would lose those seats to Reform, and they are ‘running scared’. Nandy denied that, saying Labour are reorganising local government because a two-tier system of councils is ‘bad for the country’, and it ‘doesn’t make sense to have loads of elections to positions that won’t exist in just a few months or a few years time’. Tominey argued that people are being denied their democratic right to have a vote on this government. Nandy said she is a ‘staunch defender of people’s right to vote for things’. She claimed Labour are not imposing the postponement of elections ‘from the centre’, and it is not just Labour councils that are saying the system needs to change.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson: ‘We don’t have a king’
In an interview with US Speaker Mike Johnson, Laura Kuenssberg referenced President Trump’s comments that the only thing limiting his power is his own morality, and asked if the US has a new king. Johnson said they have a ‘strong commander-in-chief’, which ‘freedom-loving people around the world’ needed, and claimed Trump is ‘exerting peace through strength’. Kuenssberg asked what Trump would do about Iran, after promising protestors that ‘help is on its way’. Johnson suggested Trump was showing protestors ‘moral support’, and had ‘fuelled the fire… for freedom’. Kuenssberg noted that many people have been killed, and asked if Trump would support military action. Johnson said the US was not close to declaring war against Iran, and called the protests an ‘encouraging development’. Kuenssberg then asked if Johnson was comfortable with the number of executive orders issued by the president. Johnson argued that Trump is the ‘most engaged president with Congress, probably in the history of the country’, and that Republicans are proud of their record under Trump.
UN General Assembly President: The UN is ‘under heavy attacks’
Trevor Phillips also spoke to Annalena Baerbock, the president of the United Nations General Assembly, asking her if she felt the UN was ‘being sidelined in the age of Donald Trump’. Baerbock said the UN is not only under pressure but ‘heavy attacks’, claiming that the UN is threatened by people like Trump giving ‘the impression that there should be another institution’. Baerbock accepted that the UN isn’t perfect, but argued that it is the only institution with the moral and legal capability to bring together every state, and questioning that would lead us back to ‘very dark times’. The UNGA president called for every UN member to recognise that it is in their own ‘pure interest’ to defend equality between states.
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