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That's right. Hi, Tom. Hi, Nana. Welcome to Reading, where we've been talking to the Prime Minister for the first time. His first interview for 2026, talking to us for GB News. We covered all sorts of areas. The issue of Greenland, its future, the issue, of course, of Venezuela and Nigel Farage, and also the family farms tax and business rates. And here's what he told GB News moments ago
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Prime Minister, thank you for joining us today on GB News. If you won't condemn Donald Trump over Venezuela
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how can we lecture Russia over its invasion of Ukraine or if China takes action against Taiwan
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Well, the position of this government is that what we need in Venezuela is a peaceful transition to democracy
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That was our position before this weekend. and it remains our position. The president was illegitimate and caused untold misery
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across Venezuela. International law is the framework, is the anchor or the benchmark
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against which we judge the actions of all other governments And it is of course for the US to justify the action that it has taken It is not straightforward it is complicated and even today there are further developments but I won shy away
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from the fact that international law is the framework and is the benchmark. If the US invades Greenland then what? Well the future of Greenland is for
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Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark and for Greenland and the future of Denmark
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Denmark only. Denmark is a very close ally of the UK, both in Europe and in NATO. It is
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very important that we are clear about the principles applicable here. Greenland and the
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Kingdom of Denmark must determine the future of Greenland and nobody else. Are Labour
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critics of Venezuela and Donald Trump wrong? People will take different positions on this
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But I think the vast majority of Labour voters and supporters, in fact, the vast majority of people across the country
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would say the most important thing is that peaceful transition to democracy
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It's been years in the waiting and now we need a period of stabilisation
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But we mustn lose sight of the fact that the most important thing is that transition to democracy in Venezuela Can I ask you about the U on the family farm tax before Christmas Why do you do it
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The principle of applying inheritance tax to farms is obviously the right principle
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but I listened to those that had concerns about where the threshold was
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including the president of the NFU and the ex-president of the NFU, listen carefully to what they had to say and determine that we should adjust the threshold
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not the principle, but the threshold. And that was the right thing to do. Are pubs next? Are you banned from your local
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Well, in relation to business rates, we're working with the sector, particularly in hospitality
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Obviously, there were reductions in place because of Covid, which were going to come to an end
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There are then transitional provisions to help. The overall rating levels is
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going down, but I do acknowledge for pubs and others that the re-evaluation
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means that they will struggle in relation to the business rates applicable to them That is why we are working with them and also other measures They want more freedom for licensing they want more freedom to actually open for longer and we are very open to that discussion with them and also other measures They want more freedom for licensing they want more freedom to actually open for longer And we are very open to that discussion with them And finally on Nigel Farage you criticised him yesterday in a TV interview He is miles
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ahead in the polls. What has he got that you have not got? And what is your message to
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GB News viewers who think he will be a better Prime Minister than you are
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Well, my message would be that Nigel Prass says a lot of things that aren't true and don't come to fruition
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So he stood in front of your viewers in the Brexit referendum and said, if we leave the EU, migration will come down
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Well, it didn't come down. It quadrupled the Boris Johnson wave. He said, if we leave the EU, you'd have £350 million a week for the NHS
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That didn't turn out to be the case. and he said if we left the EU we would cut lots of red tape
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Try telling that to anyone who is dealing and doing business with the EU
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So what you get with Nigel Farage is a lot of slippery things that are said
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but when you hold them up to the light they are not actually true. And peddling falsehoods is no way to solve the problems of this country
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Sir Keith Starmer, Prime Minister, thank you for joining us today on GB News
