David Lammy says Trump’s rhetoric can be ‘destabilising’ but threat to invade Greenland won’t happen – UK politics live | Politics

The Times has splashed this morning on an interview with Sebastian Gorka, who is going to be director of counter-terrorism in Donald Trump’s new administration. Gorka told the paper that Trump would expect the UK to take back British members of Islamic State who are currently in camps in north-east Syria.

Gorka said there was a commitment for countries like the UK to repatriate their extremists. He implied this would cover Shamima Begum, who went to Syria as a 15-year-old schoolgirl and who has had her citizenship revoked on national security grounds, preventing her return. Gorka said:

Any nation which wishes to be seen as a serious ally and friend of the most powerful nation in the world should act in a fashion that reflects that serious commitment. That is doubly so for the UK, which has a very special place in President Trump’s heart, and we would all wish to see the ‘special relationship’ fully re-established.

In an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain this morning, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said Begum would not be allowed to return to the UK. Asked about the Times story, he said:

Shamima Begum will not be coming back to the UK. It’s gone right through the courts. She’s not a UK national.

We will not be bringing her back to the UK. We’re really clear about that.

We will act in our security interests. And many of those in those camps are dangerous, are radicals.

If some of them were to return, they would “have to be, frankly, jailed as soon as they arrived,” Lammy said.

This is what Dan Sabbagh and Eleni Courea wrote about the situation facing Begum and the dozens of other Islamic State-linked Britons in Syria last month, following the fall of the Assad regime.

Good morning. For the first time in six months, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, was put up by No 10 to do the morning broadcast interview round – ahead of a speech he is giving later. At PMQs yesterday, perhaps surprisingly, Keir Starmer was not asked about Donald Trump’s suggestion that he might invade Greenland, an autonomous territory that belongs to Denmark. The French and German governments have both condemned Trump’s comments. But, in an interview with the Today programme, Lammy was rather more diplomatic.

• Lammy said that, although Trump’s language could be “destabilising”, he did not always do what he threatened. Asked about Trump’s comments, Lammy said:

I think that we know from Donald Trump’s first term that the intensity of his rhetoric, and the unpredictability sometimes of what he says, can be destabilising. He did it with Nato. But in fact, in practice, he sent more troops to Europe under his administration. He sent the first Javelins [anti-tank weapons] and weapons to Ukraine under his administration.

• Lammy said that Trump would not use military force to seize Greenland – despite suggesting he might. Asked if the UK should be following France and Germany in saying this would be unacceptable, Lammy replied:

Let’s be serious … It’s not going to happen because no Nato allies have gone to war since the birth of Nato which Ernest Bevin, my great predecessor, was part of.

Here, I suspect on Greenland, what he’s targeting is his concerns about Russia and China in the Arctic, his concerns about national economic security. He recognises, I’m sure, that in the end, Greenland today is a Kingdom of Denmark. There is a debate in Greenland about their own self determination. But behind it, I think, are his concerns about the Arctic. Of course, the US has troops and a base on Greenland. So it has got a stake in that Arctic region.

There is a lot more from the Lammy interviews. I will post the highlights shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.25am: Steve Reed, the environment secretary, speaks at the Oxford Farming Conference.

Morning: Keir Starmer is visiting a police station in London.

9.30am: NHS England publishes its monthly performance figures.

9.30am: Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

After 10.30am: Lucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, takes questions in the house on next week’s business.

11.30am: David Lammy, the foreign secretary, gives a speech on using sanctions to target people smugglers.

Morning: Kemi Badenoch is visiting a school in London.

After 11.30am: Alex Davies-Jones, the victims minister, opens a general Commons debate on violence against women and girls.

Morning: Angela Rayner, the deputy PM, is doing visits in Glasgow where she will be talking about employment rights.

Noon: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions at Holyrood.

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