Ralph Blackburn brings you three big items on the agenda in Westminster this week.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:08 Hello.
00:09 National World Politics editor, Rafe Blackburn,
00:12 here with another episode of Politics Unpacked,
00:16 where I bring you three things to keep an eye on this week
00:19 in Westminster.
00:20 Now, the first is probably the most politically consequential
00:24 vote of the week that is going to go on
00:26 in the House of Commons.
00:27 That will be on Wednesday.
00:29 And it is a motion pushed by the SNP
00:32 over whether to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
00:37 Now, the Scottish nationalists have brought about this vote
00:41 to try and put pressure on Labour and Keir Starmer.
00:45 Starmer has been under the pump, really.
00:47 He had the week from hell last week
00:50 when Labour were forced to step away
00:53 from their candidate for the Rochdale by-election, Azhar
00:56 Ali, after he repeated some anti-Semitic conspiracy
01:02 theories at a meeting.
01:05 And the last time there was a vote like this,
01:08 Labour lost 10 of its front-benchers,
01:11 including the quite high-profile Jess Phillips.
01:15 And the whole subject has caused severe fractures
01:20 within the party.
01:22 Now, in recent weeks, it appears Starmer
01:25 has been softening his stance on calling
01:28 for a permanent ceasefire.
01:29 In fact, over the weekend, he effectively
01:33 called for that at the Scottish Labour Conference.
01:35 And earlier today, Shadow Cabinet Member Wes Streeting
01:41 said that Israel was no longer acting in self-defence
01:43 when it comes to the potential offensive in Rafa.
01:47 So we may actually see the unusual situation of Labour
01:51 backing this SNP motion.
01:54 However, that would be a big shift from the Labour Party.
01:57 Starmer has previously repeated that Israel
01:59 has a right to defend itself.
02:02 Earlier on, I asked the government,
02:04 the prime minister's spokesman about this,
02:05 about what they would be doing.
02:07 However, he didn't elaborate on how the government would
02:12 whip against this.
02:14 However, he did say that--
02:17 kind of refused to support exactly what Wes Streeting
02:20 has said.
02:21 So wait on Wednesday for that vote.
02:22 However, it might be quite a big step for Starmer and the Labour
02:28 Party if they were to support this motion.
02:32 Now, the main international news this week
02:34 has been the death of Alexei Navalny, Putin's
02:36 chief critic and opposition leader in Russia.
02:41 We're due to hear a statement later on today
02:43 from the government about their response to this.
02:47 And on Wednesday and Thursday, David Cameron,
02:51 the foreign secretary, will be in Brazil
02:54 as part of the G20 Foreign Leaders Summit,
02:57 where he will come face to face with his opposite number
03:01 in Russia, Sergei Lavrov.
03:03 Now, it was reported that Cameron was already
03:05 set to have some serious talks and really
03:09 hold Lavrov to the fire over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
03:14 And now that meeting is set to be even more, I guess,
03:17 spicy and heated than it would be before.
03:21 Now, moving back to the UK, Navalny
03:24 had a list of 300 people that he said
03:27 were responsible for corruption in Russia.
03:30 And Labour has pointed out that most of those
03:31 are not on the UK's sanctions list.
03:34 So that might be something we might hear from the government
03:36 this week, where then more people will be
03:38 added to the sanctions list.
03:40 Earlier on today, the prime minister's official spokesman
03:43 said he would not discuss that ahead of time.
03:46 And that is to not give people advance warning
03:49 if they're going to be placed on the sanctions list.
03:51 But it's highly likely that that will be moved.
03:53 So keep an eye on that this week.
03:56 So this Saturday is the second anniversary
03:59 of Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
04:04 And just recently, Russia claimed
04:07 one of its biggest victories so far in the war,
04:11 taking over the eastern Ukrainian city of Advika,
04:16 which has been a big blow to Zelensky in Ukraine
04:19 and perhaps a sign that Russia's superior amount of numbers
04:23 is starting to tell in the war.
04:26 Ukraine is reportedly running out of money and ammunition
04:30 and weapons as Republicans in Congress in Washington, DC
04:35 have stalled President Biden's much promised aid effort, which
04:39 he's desperately trying to pass to send more funds to Ukraine.
04:42 That's something Foreign Secretary David Cameron
04:45 has really been pressing in.
04:46 Now, Vladimir Putin, he is hoping
04:49 that Donald Trump gets elected into the White House
04:53 in November.
04:54 As Trump has said, he would reduce the number of money
04:57 going towards Ukraine and also is
05:00 in that keen on NATO, the alliance which
05:03 defends the West from a lot of Russia's aggression.
05:07 So Putin is basically hoping to hold on until then.
05:10 And then with the kind of assistance from Donald Trump,
05:14 he can then take over Ukraine.
05:17 So that would be a frightening prospect
05:20 if that does come to fruition.
05:22 And hopefully next year, we still
05:24 won't be talking about the third anniversary of this war.
05:28 However, it looks likely it is going to go on for the long haul.
05:32 Thanks very much for watching Politics Unpacked this week.
05:36 You can find all of our politics stories
05:38 on the politics section of the nationalworld.com website.
05:40 And you can also sign up to my weekly newsletter,
05:43 Politics Uncovered, which comes into your inbox every Sunday.
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