Steps with iran. And meet snowball, the dancing cockatoo. His videos were a viral hit but in boston they have got scientists all of a flutter. Hello and welcome. Im Michelle Fleury in new york and Christian Fraser is in london. Theresa may tried hard with donald trump. She invested a great deal of Political Capital setting up his recent state visit, and she persevered with the relationship in spite of his often public criticisms of her brexit strategy. It was all to no end. Today, the president ridiculed her on twitter while doubling down on his criticism of Sir Kim Darroch, her governments representative in washington. The wacky ambassador the uk foisted upon the United States, he tweeted, is not someone we are thrilled with, a very stupid guy. He should speak to his country and Prime Minister may, about their failed brexit negotiation and not be upset with my criticism of how badly it was handled. I told theresa may how to do that deal, but she went her own foolish way, was unable to get it done. A disaster i dont know the ambassador but i have been told he is a pompous fool. Tell him the usa now has the best economy military anywhere in the world, by far. Thank you, mr president. Well heres what white house adviser Kellyanne Conway had to say about his tweets. President is very clear about the comments made by the uk ambassador to the us, and the president also yesterday commented on how brexit should have been many present people accuse the president of meddling but it turns out he was right. Theresa may leaves will leave office in two weeks time. Sir kim darrochs tenure at the British Embassy in washington, is also coming to a close. So the tweets are a headache not for them, but theresa mays successor. Post brexit, what kind of special relationship is this going to be . Jeremy hunt and borisjohnson will go head to head in front of a Live Television audience tonight. And ahead of that debate it would seem they have different views on how they would approach the mercurial donald trump. Here is a tweet from mr hunt. Here is borisjohnsons response. Is he right to criticise the Prime Minister . I myself have said some critical things about brexit negotiation so far. Thats one of the reasons why i am standing tonight. Were joined now from westminster by sir Christopher Meyer who served as uk ambassador to the us and from washington by amanda sloat of the brookings institution. Sir kim has taken sensible decision today to stay out of the way. It was his choice not to go to a meeting with if could trump. If you were him, what would you be doing in the next few weeks while all hopefully blue over . First of all, i would look to august, which is only three weeks away, when washington closes down and people go on holiday. I would hope to get to august in reasonably good shape, and then i would hope that come september when everybody returns that some of the heat will have gone out of this dispute. Because the one thing that i would have to test is to what extent the president s anger and vindictiveness in spite actually infect the whole administration, is this just infect the whole administration, is thisjust a question infect the whole administration, is this just a question of not being received by donald trump at a dinner in qatar . Orders that spread into the white house staff and the National Security council . Will serve him find himself shot out with all kinds of meetings . There was a cancellation earlier today at a meeting involving the commerce secretary and liam fox. Thats one of the things you have to find out, how untenable is your position as ambassador, your ability to do the job, has become as a result of the president s fury at the leaked cash of telegrams which sikkim sent back to london . Even by Donald Trumps extraordinary standards it would shock people that he would double down, having been so vocal in his tweets yesterday, it demonstrates that this is becoming an asymmetrical relationship. This is not entirely surprising that this president. We have seen on previous occasions that he tends to ruminate on things and wakes up in the morning and tends to double down on them. His initial tweet yesterday seem them. His initial tweet yesterday seem to come in the wake of Prime Minister mays defensive said kim derek, and trump does not have anything to lose at this stage. Theresa may will be gone in two weeks so there is no incentive for him to be nice to her, and it is in keeping for him to hit back at those who he thinks of this speculation has been rife given this speculation has been rife about who is behind all the motives behind this league, is there a sense at all that donald trump is taking the bait and playing a role in whatever is behind this . It certainly will be interesting to see who is responsible for the leaks. There seem to be two possibilities, one to somebody within the british syste m one to somebody within the british system who potentially has an axe to grind orare seeking system who potentially has an axe to grind or are seeking to play a role in the leadership contest or in the brexit debate, the other possibility that people are of course discussing, especially given the journalist who leaked the documents on her ties to aaron banks and his ties to russian money influencing the campaign, is whether or not there is Foreign Government interference, and certainly whichever one of those two directions this goes, there will be significant consequences. It seems the government is ruling out foreign intervention. Given that we are seeing the politicisation of the Civil Service in britain, what happens if the next ambassador to washington is more of a political figure rather than someone from britains Civil Service . That is not without precedent. It is not unusual for the British Ambassador to be a political appointee. I can think of three straight off the cuff. And there may have been others, ijust cant remember. So there is a precedent for political appointees. It is quite possible that the new Prime Minister will appoint somebody whom he considers more congenial to his way of thinking and the way in which he wants to handle relations with United States. But to pick up a point i had christiansen early on about the asymmetric nature of the relationship between britain and the us, this is not unprecedented. Go back to 1956 in the suez crisis, where the Us Administration used all its power and strength to stop us in oui its power and strength to stop us in our invasion of the suez canal with france and israel. We showed our viewers the different approaches thatjeremy hunt and borisjohnson appeared to be taken, which do you think is the better approach, to stand robust and push back and say, thatis stand robust and push back and say, that is our ambassador, he will stay, all as you said to be more congenial with donald trump . |j stay, all as you said to be more congenialwith donald trump . I think we should play this semi long. It may well be that trump will get even more steamed up offered to another nights sleep and come out with more extreme language tomorrow. We have to wait for the immediate storm to pass, we have to wait and see exactly how constrained, how hamstrung pass, we have to wait and see exactly how constrained, how sir kim will turn out to be, and hope that when we have a new government in britain, when the Summer Holidays are over, when everybody is back in washington, there can be a fresh start. I thinkjeremy hunt said the very least a British Foreign secretary can say in the circumstances. His statement was pretty mild, it asked for respect, which is not an unreasonable thing to quest, the whole thing is on the prism of brexit and the contest between him and borisjohnson. You asked me to comment on boriss approach, so fighters beat make no comment at all on the row with President Trump. Maybe debate tonight he will be obliged to Say Something more concrete than he has, but there is nothing wrong with what Jeremy Hunter said. Our interest is for this to wind down, and it may be some time for this to happen, so we have to be patient and resist the temptation to jump into the mosh have to be patient and resist the temptation tojump into the mosh pit with donald trump. Sorry to interrupt you there. Amanda, do you think Donald Trumps administration will toe the line and follow their bosss lead . That is the big question right here in washington. Everybody is trying to decipher what donald trump meant by his tweet. Yesterday, he said we would not deal with kim derek any more, reporters and not been able to get the straight answer on whether or not he has been formally png read, they are pointing fingers, but as we are seeing with the Treasury Department this inviting him from the dinner la st this inviting him from the dinner last night, the Commerce Department cancelling a dinner, it appears that senior political officials are trying to respect the letter and the spirit of Donald Trumps wishes in his tweet. Always a pleasure, thank you both for your views on that. Png, persona non grata. Not as ostracised as donald trump likes to perceive that he was. When you look at some of the invitations that politico has gathered over the last year, you will see that in fact, you might not be able to see actually, but in that tweet from jake sherman, there are a list of parties and events, celebrations, at the British Embassy in washington, and a lot of names of people from the administration, very senior people. All these sort of people who flow through the British Embassy from time to time. My bet is that sir christophers point, whoever holds the social can do for the British Embassy might have a quite summer ahead scale it back, i hope it blows over. So as discussed conservative leadership rivals Boris Johnson and jeremy hunt are preparing to debate each other, in just under an hours time. The itv debate will be the first and only time the two go up against each other before the postal ballots are returned. Lets speak to vicki young our chief Political Correspondent whos in salford ahead of tonights debate. I always like to think it is like a boxing match, they are in their respective dressing rooms, being taped up, ready to go, what is happening backstage at the moment . am sure that is happening somewhere. This of course the first head to head debate and the only one they will have, and team hunt have been very critical of borisjohnson, saying he has been hiding from scrutiny, he has not done as many interviews, he did not want to debate early on because those postal ballots to conservative Party Members went out a few days ago, and most people think that those receiving them fill out the form, send it back quickly, so could this contest already be over . It is certainlyjeremy hunts last chance to turn things around, he is seen as being the underdog in this contest. As you were talking about there, this whole row with donald trump, that personal criticism of theresa may, how will borisjohnson respond to that . He will be pinned down i think a lot more closely in the debate tonight because he could talk about having a Good Relationship with the white house will being critical of brexit policy, but the question is, would he stand by the uk ambassador or not . It is a decision he potentially will have to make in two weeks time. Historically, the conservative party has been synonymous with the british establishment. How has the party got to the point where it is looking at a politician who has so many questions about his character . That is the criticism of borisjohnson, not only that, that has been raised an awful lot, and certainlyjeremy hunt has been betraying himself as a steady, serious figure, that is how he frames it, and obviously hoping to be contrasted with borisjohnson, but mrjohnsons team say he was in london may, he fulfilled that role, they did not talk about his role as foreign secretary so much and there will be questions about this this evening, and it is part of the reason people think borisjohnson has not done as many interviews, because he does not want to answer those questions. Recently, there was a flurry of activity but the row he had with his girlfriend. When he is asked this question is, he says he will not answer them, he doesnt wa nt to will not answer them, he doesnt want to dragged his loved ones into this, and that is his response. He will not go there. But with the tory Party Faithful, he has always been popular, they seem to go for that exuberant character at this time, and the same with conservative mps. So many of them said things about borisjohnson so many of them said things about Boris Johnson that so many of them said things about borisjohnson that i would not be able to say to you on air, and yet over half of them have swung behind him because they now feel he is their only chance of delivering brexit by the end of october, of trying to beat nigel farage and take away that threat, and they hope to beatJeremy Corbyn, so thats why they are getting behind him, and thats why they think the tory Party Faithful will do so as well. Meanwhile the labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announced today that in the event a tory government striking a deal on brexit or tries to take the uk out without a deal, then he and his party will proactively support a referendum and in those circumstances labour will campaign for remain. It is an evolution in the partys position. But there has been no indication yet on what would be on the partys manifesto in the event of a general election. And Jeremy Corbyn has refused to say whether labour would want to remain if the party won power or whether they would be negotiating a new deal. Here isjohn here is john pienaar. Jeremy corbyn has bowed to pressure inside his party. Labour have pledged to fight the deal or no deal brexit of the next Prime Minister and campaign to stay in. As labour party of remain 01 stay in. As labour party of remain or leave . Labour is a party that says we hit are going to take no deal off the table and people will have the choice. Do they want to accept no deal or vote on the possibility of remaining. We are a big democratic organisation, i spent some time consulting with all parts of the labour party and Labour Movement and we have come to this position. We have a democratic process and will decide on our election position when that comes. Maybe you are fearful of losing more support. I have been listening. But the pressure to support another referendum had grown too loud to ignore and next the anti brexiteers in labour will demand that the party backs were made before the election and if it wins and today they are celebrating. Members have been telling us they want us to be and remain party and want us to put the new deal to the people. We will now campaign for that and im proud that the shadow cabinet have listened to their concerns. We had further discussions about what we do before and during an election. Other state labour last back brexit deal. People say what they want but do not explain how to get there and the idea that Boris Johnson explain how to get there and the idea that borisjohnson is going to become Prime Minister and then say lets put this to a referendum, it is just not lets put this to a referendum, it isjust not going lets put this to a referendum, it is just not going to happen. Lets put this to a referendum, it isjust not going to happen. Would labour lose more new supporters now and what about the remaining members who have turned away, is it already too late to bring back the droves of labour supporters who deserted labour supporters who deserted labour because of your position so faron labour because of your position so far on brexit . Labour will offer something very different, a radical change in our country where we value everybody, not the tax giveaways that Boris Johnson and jeremy everybody, not the tax giveaways that borisjohnson and jeremy hunt are competing on. The labour brexit plan is still a work in progress. Pro remain to date but labour could still go to the next election promising to get a better deal in europe and then call a referendum on that. If that happens will it be pro remain or pro leave, Jeremy Corbyn has put off deciding election policy until later. Both major parties are feeling the squeeze of brexit and neither one knows how to handle it. I guess some of these positions will evolve further depending on who becomes Prime Minister. Then it will becomes Prime Minister. Then it will be through the summer we start to see which direction the government is going on. And then we will see labour develop their position. President trump has been hosting the amir of qatar at the white house this afternoon and if theres one foriegn country that can defuse tensions between the us and iran its likely qatar. According to officials, the qataris have offered to mediate between the washington and tehran. Keep in mind saudi arabia, the united arab emirates, bahrain and egypt have maintained a sea, air and land blockade around qata