Watch the moment Wes Streeting dodges a fiery GB News grilling on Iranian terrorists being smuggled across the Channel, refusing to guarantee the protection of Britons.
Speaking to GB News, the Defence Secretary was asked three times whether he can “guarantee” to GB News viewers there “haven’t been any terrorists coming across in small boats”.
Mr Streeting told host Dawn Neesom: “Firstly, we do have strong measures in place to assess people coming into the country to guard against that threat. Secondly, we’re not not complacent about that risk.
“I would also just guard against and repeating Iranian propaganda, and they’re good at what they do in terms of their propaganda effort.
“We see that online, they want to increase that fear. So I’m not going to repeat Iranian talking points. We do have strong measures at the border.”
Pushing back on Mr Streeting’s argument, Dawn asked again: “So you can’t guarantee it basically, can you?”
The ex-Health Secretary assured GB News viewers: “We absolutely have strong robust measures at the border to guard against that threat.
“And let me say, in terms of first impressions in this job, in my first week and a half in this role as Defence Secretary, I’ve had a unique insight into the capability that we have, both in terms of our domestic and international security services. They are second to none.”
Wes Steeting has been grilled by GB News on whether the Government can ‘guarantee’ that terrorists are not crossing the Channel
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GB NEWS
Pressing Mr Streeting a third time, Dawn told him: “But you can’t you can’t guarantee that terrorists aren’t crossing the Channel, can you?”
He responded: “As I say, we’ve got strong border measures, but we also have strong domestic homeland security services. Honestly, I wish I could show the public more of what we have in terms of our security and intelligence services.
“They are genuinely the best in the business. They keep our country safe 24/7, 365 days a year, and their success often goes uncelebrated, unreported because of the secret nature of their work.”
Frustrated with Mr Streeting’s dismissal, Dawn concluded: “We’ll just take that as a no, you can’t guarantee it.”
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PAMr Streeting told GB News: “You can have total confidence that they are tasked in the right way to guard against threats from Iran and other malevolent countries that would do us harm, as well as domestic terrorism.”
Turning the discussion to Britain’s defence spending, the Defence Secretary was asked whether the newly pledged £8.4billion investment is “new money” or “funding we already have”.
The Labour MP said: “This is already fully funded. At the spending review and through the extra investment won by my predecessor Dan Jarvis, we’ve got the program fully funded.
“And that’s why the Prime Minister and I are here today to announce that new contract and both the capability it will create through the renewal of our nuclear deterrence, but also the jobs, the opportunities that it will provide us.”
Wes Streeting told GB News that the UK has ‘strong border measures’
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GB NEWS
Challenging Mr Streeting on Labour’s defence spending, Dawn argued he should be “pushing against an open door with John Healey” to urge the Chancellor to boost funding.
Mr Streeting responded: “We’re not complacent about two things – one is I’ve got to demonstrate before I ask for even more money from John Healey as Chancellor that the money that we’re already spending is being well spent.
“And one of the reasons the Prime Minister’s asked me to undertake this role in responsibility is when I was the health Secretary, this is the approach I took there. We balanced the books for the first time in a decade.
“So I’ll be doing a similar approach here at the Ministry of Defence, tackling some of the historic challenges around procurement value for money and doing what we say when we say it, and making sure we keep to time, so getting to grips with all of those challenges.”