He is the great survivor of the years of tory turmoil. Appointed by borisjohnson, promoted by Liz Truss and kept on by Rishi Sunak. Hes now in the final four candidates to become the next leader of the Conservative Party. All of them will make their case before conservative activists and members at the tory conference in a couple of weeks time. James cleverly, welcome to political thinking. Cheers, nick. This the first time weve spoken since that Election Day . How does it feel to go from having one of those Great Offices Of State and all that comes with it, the red boxes and the chauffeured cars and the security and all the rest . Suddenly its gone. So its not that paraphernalia that you miss. Its the being able to do stuff. And particularly in the portfolios ive held, foreign Secretary And Home secretary, theyre both very much in the news at the moment. The situation with ukraine, the decisions around the uks posture, how we further support the ukrainians in their self defence. Weve
Are currently in russia. One russian Tv Channel aired footage claiming to show them leaving the country. The Foreign Office here in london has yet to comment. It follows President Putins warning that russia would consider the use of us and british suppled long range missiles on targets inside russia as a serious escalation of the war in ukraine. The uks Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is due to discuss giving permission when he meets President Biden in washington today. Sir keir said moscow had started the conflict, and could end it by withdrawing its troops from ukraine. Our political editor chris mason, whos travelling with the Prime Minister, sent this report shortly after landing in the us. The Prime Minister arriving here in washington with the foreign secretary, David Lammy Sir Keir Starmer s second visit to the White House in two months. Ukraines allies remain rather guarded in their public remarks about a change in policy on the use of Western Missiles inside russia. But the
He says russia has timed the expulsions to send a message to the uk. Absolutely no doubt, the timing is too coincidental. This is russian punishment for the uk being seen as a cheerleader for supplying weapons to ukraine. And the reasons they gave in their statement are completely trumped up. We are told the russian Spy Agency has documents from a department in the Foreign Office which say that the task of the embassy is ensuring russias strategic defeat against ukraine. Well, surprise, surprise, thats been british declared policy for 2. 5 years. So this is a trumped up story to create pressure on the british government. Our reporter Olga Malchevska has been following the story and checking the sources in russian. How sources in russian. Is the kremlin explaining these how is the kremlin explaining these expulsions to the russian people . These expulsions to the russian eole . These expulsions to the russian Eo Le .. these expulsions to the russian eole . people . The russian Media Exl
Footage claiming to show them leaving the country. The Foreign Office here in london has yet to comment. For the very latest on this developing story, i spoke to our eastern European Correspondent sarah rainsford. I think the timing of this is key, its not accidental that this has been released, that this has been released, that this is happening precisely as those discussions are taking place in washington about whether or not ukraine can use western long range missiles to strike inside russia. They are absolutely connected. Its interesting looking of a statement from the fsb, the russian security agency, when they are talking about X Bellingham essentially six members of the british embassy, accusing them of espionage and subversive activity. It is interesting, they also go on to talk about britain being responsible for escalating what they describe as the military political situation right now, they say britain is coordinating all of this and claiming that there is a department of t