but is there ambassador lord peter mandelson. emit is there jeopardy there? elon musk? i would be surprised if elon musk is the man— would be surprised if elon musk is the man who _ would be surprised if elon musk is the man who manages _ would be surprised if elon musk is the man who manages to - would be surprised if elon musk is the man who manages to fracture | would be surprised if elon musk is- the man who manages to fracture the anglo-american— the man who manages to fracture the anglo—american alliance, _ the man who manages to fracture the anglo—american alliance, and - the man who manages to fracture the anglo—american alliance, and the - a:r1glo—american alliance, and the! § my 22:2z:55..e.e.:.::.e.......:.;.. ainglo—american alliance, and the § my flavour 2:77? ainglo—american alliance, and the § my flavour politics but he not my flavour politics but he was elected _ not my flavour politics but he was elected president of the us, and i think— elected president of the us, and i think that — elected president of the us, and i think that even in dona

also, by the way, i think i'm right in saying peter mandelson.p camp are thinking and feeling when it comes to our labour government. >> well, i have to tell you, and it doesn't fill me with any glee to talk about it this way, because i am obviously interested in what's best for my home country, the united kingdom. but unfortunately, the labour apparatus, the labour staffers that have been sent down to sunny palm beach to kind of work the rooms over there, from my understanding, are getting pretty short shrift. now, i will caveat that by saying, if you've ever met president trump, if you if you've encountered him, if you've encountered him, if you've worked with him, people will know. and i've met him many, many times, will know that he's actually a pretty magnanimous person face to face. he's very welcoming, he's quite gentle. and so he will be trying to elicit the best out of them as possible. the problem is, you've obviously got everything that the labour party was doing throughout the campaign. you've now got a labour party that's at odds wit

will he be used by keir starmer or peter mandelson in some way to represent team uk?y simple answer. mandelson said it can't nigel farage has said it, i think the _ difference between mandelson and starmer, the fact that starmer crossed the floor to chat to him, is telling. in 2016, the tories found themselves constitutionally unable to use the only brit with an entry into the white house, into the oval office to talk to him. i think that keir starmer is a little bit more sensible and i think that mandelson is much more pragmatic and he realises that if he wants to get in there... i have been talking to somebody, a uk—based american, kenney baden ox team are going to him and saying how can you help us to counter faraj in the white house. the tories do not have a way in. labour have a way in it because they are the government but they recognise that if they want to have open comms with the white house, if you want to have open comms with donald trump's cabinet then why reinvent the wheel, we have got faraj. nigel farage understands that it's not always what he wants, i

we had peter mandelson chosen to be the new u.k. ambassador to washington.s been a long advocate of better relations with china that might not endear him to the new u.s. administration. the european union is also trying to put pressure on china over the war in ukraine. there's a lot of short-term downside risk for something that we understand will not yield many big announcements. >> may be more to expect. how should the u.k. approach its economic relationship with china? we discussed that with vince cable at 7:30 a.m. time. wall s >> good morning. i'm tom mackenzie in london and these are the stories that sager agenda. asian stocks slide ahead of key u.s. jobs data that could shape the outlook for interest rates. china's central bank makes a surprise move to stop buying government bonds. and 180,000 people have been forced from their homes in los angeles with firefighters battling to control new blazes. president biden promises the government will cover the state's costs and donald trump says a meeting with vladimir putin is being set up as the president-el

. >> just just to say, you know, peter mandelson is not here to defend himself. sorry.>> i don't think i don't think you can defend yourself against that kind of opprobrium that i've just levelled against him. >> no, no, no, it's the point is it's just and i'm >> no, no, no, it's the point is it'sjust and i'm not >> no, no, no, it's the point is it's just and i'm not wildly disagreeing with you, ben on on his moral turpitude. however, to say he's not an effective political operation, a very able politician would be wrong. >> but you wouldn't want someone in reform chang. this has leo tonight with me. welcome back. i'm alex armstrong. now the chancellor says there's no choice but to engage with china as she seeks to restart britain's formal economic relationship with the nation. let's take a listen to what she's been saying in the past few hours. >> the fiscal rules that i set out in my budget in october are non—negotiable, and growth is the number one mission of this government to make our country better off. and that is why i am in china to unlock tangible benefits for

will he be the conduit between peter mandelson and donald trump? heaven forbid. and the managing director of the pubuc and the managing director of the public safety foundation, oliver lawrence, will join me in on the show to offer a policing perspective on the child rape gang scandal that has been developing this week. and i'm also going to be hearing from the pollster scarlett mccgwire and former labour minister bill rammell. we're going to discuss what might be coming ahead for all of the parties. and i include reform in that who are rising through the ranks. there's a poll that we're going to be speaking about in the pay per view in just a moment, and just ask them what is really going to be the thing that we need to look out for in 2025. so again, 90 minutes of punchy british politics to come. do not think of going anywhere. let's get stuck into the sunday front pages now with former bbc broadcaster nicholas owen. nicholas, happy new year to you. chat to you. lovely to see you. right. let's get stuck into this mail on sunday poll. i love a poll. i love i lov

the mortgage fraud thing was nothing like as bad as peter mandelson's mortgage fraud, for instance.u know, it was basically he basically sort of, you know, smudged a few lines on his sister's mortgage application to make it look like she was a safer bet. well, most of us in the late 90s got mortgages and self accreditation mortgages. the banks basically asking you whether you thought you were good for it or yes, lawfare. we should have a look at the guardian, lewis, the guardian, the guardian, which is tomorrow is i think it's £2. >> it's £3 on a monday. that's how much the guardian is. they think they're a real newspaper. ukrainian troops in. i mean, what kind of news is this? ukrainian troops in new push into kurtz, which is that it's like. it's like the ukraine war still going on, i think i think there's a really hot phase at there's a really hot phase at the moment because, you know, they're heading into peace negotiations with trump coming into power. >> so they're both putting so much into putting all their resources into grabbing as much land as possible. so kursk being part

will he be the conduit between peter mandelson and donald trump? heaven forbid. and i'm also going to be hearing from the pollster scarlett mccgwire and former labour minister bill rammell. we're going to discuss what might be coming ahead for all of the parties. and i include reform in that who are rising through the ranks. there's a poll that we're going to be speaking about in the pay per view in just a moment, and just ask them what is really going to be the thing that we need to look out for in 2025? wes streeting hopefully you can hear me. health secretary, lovely to speak to you this morning. let's very swiftly move on to your announcement about your nhs app. now, this target, you're going to reduce the 18 month wait to an 18 week wait by the end of parliament. is that right? that's quite ambitious. will you stand down from your post if you do not achieve that target? >> well, i don't think the prime minister will keep me in my job if i'm not delivering for patients. that's what he expects me to do, because we've got what is objectively the worst crisis in

yeah, let's think what peter mandelson and others, tony blair and others were saying. >> i mean, the ambassador to washington, well, we'll see whether trump wants him gone up to trump, whether he has, you know what, in a way it is, though, isn't it? well, i think it would be wise to pursue that, but. >> well, yeah. but you know, they all talked about diversity as if diversity for its own sake was a good thing. and we all accept diversity actually can be accept diversity actually can be a very good thing. but provided it comes with a degree of integration as well, isn't this a failure of integration of communities? isn't it a failure of the sort of the multicultural experiment? absolutely. >> i mean, nigel, you're more aware than most that we're now in a new era. this this stuff is not going to stand anymore. so we have to understand that people were part of their era, including the conservative government, was part of its era. they were reluctant to inflame. however, there's no compromise on this. the truth of this has got to we know that there's more coming out. look, i've talked to