military action failure to back military action in syria in 2013. we'll also reflect on five months of labour in government, and of course, i'll have to ask barry gardiner about the chinese spying scandal. reform uk chairman zia yusuf will be live in the studio. i'll be getting his reaction to my interview with kemi badenoch. is she right to say that reform uk is just a nigel farage fan club.7 and historian and author alexander larman will be here to talk about his new documentary on the relationship between edward vii and george vi. i'll also see what he makes of the duke of york's role in the m15 investigation into that chinese spy. we've got 90 minutes of punchy british politics to come, including that exclusive interview with kemi badenoch. so don't go anywhere. right. let's delve into the

sunday papers this morning with my telegraph colleague, parliamentary sketchwriter madeline grant madelin. lovely to see you. morning, camilla. looking suitably christmassy, actually, with red and white festive jumper. absolutely lovely to see you. let's get straight in on the theme of something red. i'm thinking chinese flags. i'm thinking, why has another chinese spy been able to not just infiltrate it seems parliament, but also royal circles got on to the duke of york aspect in a minute. but the times has got this extraordinary image of this person who's only known as h6. it's all very james bond, isn't it.7 yeah. photographed not only with david cameron, but also with theresa may. >> yeah, there's perhaps there's a touch of the tinker tailor soldier spy there, too. it's a pretty damning story. i mean, i think that quite apart from the revelations about prince andrew and i think obviously we've known for a very, very long time that he's got terrible political judgement and that the king was quite right to try and ostracise him as much as he has. but also, i think it's very important that we remember that, you know, this is not just an andrew problem,

as the sunday times makes very clear in this reporting. this goes to the heart of the british establishment. you know, there are many tainted institutions beyond beyond prince andrew and his role in the royal family. there's, you know, the ancient universities, big business and in fact, politicians. because as the sunday times points out, this spy was able to meet with both david cameron and theresa may. yes. >> look, many people meet with theresa may and david cameron and any other prime minister, right.7 okay, so they're kind of caught on camera. you could pose up with a number of different people. but what this speaks to madeleine is this idea of the chinese having a huge amount of cash, and therefore a huge amount of influence under the cameron era. we know it was kind of, you know, let's all be completely pro—china and let's bnng completely pro—china and let's bring xi jinping in and all the rest of it. that has actually continued a bit with the labour government, who have talked about resurfacing these ties and everything. but, you know, with china sort of circling taiwan and everything going on, and all of donald trump's warnings seems

rather out of kilter to be courting the chinese right now. >> yeah, i agree. i mean, i think the golden age of chinese british relations under under david cameron, the golden era, as they called it, was that was obviously a terrible strategic mistake. but at the very least, you can argue that this was before the uyghur genocide. this happened before covid, lest we forget, which very much came out of china. and i think, given what we now know, to have any continuation of that policy looks unbelievably foolhardy, i think we need to be more serious as treating china as a potentially existential threat, rather than a country that we can have kind of normal relations with. >> to be fair to him, the only politician that's been consistent on this is iain duncan smith. yeah. along the way. i mean, he's been sanctioned by beijing like a lot of other politicians. i think tom tugendhat has been sanctioned by the chinese. but and andrew, just very briefly, is it time for the duke of york to just become a private citizen? >> yeah. >> yeah. >> i mean, it's a difficult one

because his sources are saying, hang on a minute. you know, he was not aware and he is being used as a kind of pawn in this chinese spies game. and we get that. but yeah, he's a liability for the king, isn't he? >> well, he is, but beyond appearing at the christmas walkabout, i'm not really sure what exactly he has. >> well, he's still living in royal lodge, you know, and that's true. >> but he's being bankrolled by the royal family, is it or. i don't know, i mean, you know, there's talk now, he might not appear at the walkabout in sandringham, which would probably be a bit harsh. >> the duchess of york has been ianed >> the duchess of york has been invited along in previous years. she's had a difficult year because she's had a double cancer diagnosis. who knows? let's move on to the next story, which is on the front of the mail on sunday. we're calling it starmer's eu sell out. starmer has got a surrender squad planning to undo brexit with some of these talks with the eu. just explain it to us. >> yes, absolutely. this is the story that the prime minister has assembled, a kind of pretty significant sized department to essentially to renegotiate brexit, they call it, to reset our relations with the eu. some

fear that this is done with the aim of ultimately rejoining the eu. lord frost, in fact, who was served as the trade negotiator, previously said that more people than he he was given to negotiate the initial deal have been seconded to this department. so it's like 100 civil servants or something in that region. and it's interesting to me because, you know, whatever your views on brexit, and i very much understand why many people feel it hasn't been a success, not least because having unequivocally said many times that they wanted migration to be lower, it reached unprecedented levels under boris johnson. so i do understand that. but i do think that it's interesting that this is all happening at a time when, you know, things are not going particularly well economically in the eu. the eu seems to be the euro seems to be in great turmoil. and of course, political instability as well. >> olaf scholz on his knees and euanne >> olaf scholz on his knees and elianne macron about to be turfed out of the elysee palace. exactly. >> and it also does slightly beg the question of like, what are the question of like, what are the concessions that starmer and co might have to offer on the uk

part in order to get this more seamless relationship that they want? >> what are they going to have to concede to brussels going backwards? also, there's an interesting piece in the sunday times talking about giorgia meloni, the italian prime minister, being the new queen of europe, which made me inwardly chuckle. she had a very close relationship, believe it or not, with rishi sunak. >> yes, she she she did. >> yes, she she she did. >> they kept on hanging out together because they were the same age and both from the right. and i just thought to myself, starmer and meloni will have very, very little in common if she is indeed the queen of europe that he really needs to negotiate with. >> i actually think she is the queen of europe to an extent. it's extraordinary. can you imagine a couple of years ago if somebody said that the most stable country politically in the eu is italy? italy? >> i know, but it just goes to show if you have robust leadership and somebody that sticks to their principles and values, and she's made huge strides with trying to reduce immigration, particularly into lampedusa and around the italian coast, then, you know, it pays dividends. >> and i tell you what, if she doesn't like starmer, it will be very obvious because she has the worst poker face that i've ever seen. no video of her meeting.

macron is something extraordinary. >> and also just looking at joe biden, like with an eye race going, what the hell is he doing? no, we like meloni because she's, you know, i suppose bringing girl power back to the european stage. racist doctors row. this is about wes streeting, the health secretary vowing to root out nhs anti—semitism. do you know what? we've done quite a few stories about this, haven't we, on the telegraph? and it's on the front page of the telegraph. i've heard anecdotally from a number of jewish doctors saying that some of the stuff that's posted on these kind of medical whatsapp and other groups, social media groups, it's absolutely appalling. >> absolutely. what strikes me about this story is that, you know, i about this story is that, you