Wes Streeting: ‘Trump has said some outrageous things’
J.D. Vance has left Pakistan after high level negotiations between the US and Iran ended without reaching an agreement. On Sky News this morning, Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Trevor Phillips that it was ‘disappointing’ there had been no breakthrough, but he said in diplomacy, ‘you’re failing until you succeed’. Phillips asked what the UK government is doing to prepare for an extended conflict. Streeting said the Foreign Secretary has been meeting allies in the region to ‘see what we can do’ to get trade moving through the Strait of Hormuz again and that the government is keeping the impact of the conflict ‘under close review’. Phillips asked Streeting about Donald Trump’s claim that the US is ‘clearing’ the Strait of Hormuz. Streeting described some of the US President’s language over the past week as ‘incendiary, provocative, outrageous’ – but claimed that Trump had to be judged on ‘what he does, not just what he says’. The Health Secretary argued that the only way out of the conflict is through an agreement with Iran that ‘puts nuclear weapons beyond its ambitions’.
Tucker Carlson on Trump: ‘I feel sorry for him, as I do for all slaves’
In an interview with the BBC, right-wing influencer Tucker Carlson described the war in Iran as ‘the single biggest mistake Trump or any American president has made in my lifetime’. Speaking to Victoria Derbyshire, Carlson claimed that Trump had acted against Iran ‘at the behest, and then the demand, of Israel’ and suggested that Trump had ‘recognised immediately that it was a mistake’. He argued that the war will result in the Iranian regime being stronger than it was before. Derbyshire noted that Carlson had been a vocal supporter of Trump and asked if the two had ‘fallen out’ over this war. Carlson said he has always liked Trump and claimed he feels sorry for him because he is a ‘slave’. Derbyshire pushed back against this and Carlson claimed as evidence that Israel had ‘intentionally violated the terms’ of the short-lived ceasefire by attacking Lebanon.
Wes Streeting: ‘I’m furious with the BMA’
Resident doctors are on strike again after long negotiations failed. The doctors claimed the government had changed its offer at the last minute. The British Medical Association (BMA) is demanding another 26 per cent pay rise, to restore wages to the level of 2008. On Sky News, Health Secretary Wes Streeting denied that the terms of the deal had been changed, and said the BMA was being ‘unreasonable’. Streeting contrasted his approach with the Conservatives who he said had ‘refused to negotiate with the BMA’ and said it is ‘absurd’ that the BMA have rejected a deal for another 4.9 per cent pay rise, ‘thousands of new training opportunities’, and the removal of exam fees. Streeting said he knew the government hadn’t solved every issue in its two years, but he was asking the BMA ‘not to pretend we could have done’.
Zia Yusuf: ‘Almost every Starmer catastrophe is simply continuing something that the Tories started’
The government has shelved the Chagos Islands deal after the US failed to approve it. A government spokesperson said: ‘We continue to believe the agreement is the best way to protect the long-term future of the base, but we have always said we would only proceed with the deal if it has US support.’ President Trump derided the deal in January as ‘an act of total weakness’. On GB News, shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge mockingly compared the deal to Monty Python’s dead parrot sketch, and said he was ‘delighted’ that the deal was going nowhere. Camilla Tominey also spoke to Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf, who said he was amazed he could still be ‘shocked by the shamelessness of the Tories’. Yusuf pointed out that the Conservatives themselves did 11 rounds of negotiations for the Chagos Islands deal and described them as ‘shameless arsonists promising to rebuild your house after spending 14 years burning it to the ground’. Tominey noted that the Tories were instrumental in scuppering the deal by finding the 1966 treaty which suggested that the Chagos deal would be a breach of international law.
Ed Davey: ‘If you take action now… you can grow the economy’
Victoria Derbyshire also interviewed Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey. She asked Davey how he would pay for policies such as an extra £1 billion for farmers, cutting fuel duty and removing VAT for heating oil for three months. Davey claimed that Chancellor Rachel Reeves is getting a ‘tax windfall’ worth £8 billion a year from higher oil and gas prices, which could be invested. Derbyshire noted that Reeves herself has said that since the war in Iran, ‘the cost of borrowing for government has gone through the roof, so the idea that there’s any windfall coming to the Treasury is for the birds’. Davey argued that Reeves is wrong, and that additional revenue should be invested back into business and families. Derbyshire suggested that Davey might be the only person in the country who thinks the war is good for the economy. Davey said the war is ‘dreadful’ for the economy but his policies would ‘reduce inflation, help interest rates… and make it easier to manage government finances’. Derbyshire said that an increase in revenue from higher fuel prices would be offset by lower overall tax receipts and ‘higher public spending on debt interest’. Davey refused that argument, claiming extra money is coming in, and it is possible to grow the economy ‘if you take action’.
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