Trump kidnaps Maduro, and Starmer says… nothing?
The Politics Show
The New Statesman
4.2 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Emily Thornberry MP joins us to discuss the US's actions in Venezuela, the legality, and the international response.
In the second half of the podcast, the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee reflects on Starmer's moves to a closer relationship with the EU.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The New Statesman. |
| 0:05.8 | On Friday night, American Armed Forces carried out airstrikes across Venezuela. |
| 0:10.2 | The attack killed about 80 people, and the President Nicholas Maduro and his wife, Celia |
| 0:13.8 | Flores, were abducted and flown to America. |
| 0:16.3 | Later, Donald Trump turned Maduro into content, posting videos and pictures of the handcuffed |
| 0:20.4 | president to his social media feeds. |
| 0:22.2 | Propaganda by posting. The opposed leader will appear in a New York City courtroom today, facing drug and slightly ridiculously, weapons charges. Yes, that's in a country that sells sniper rifles next to nappies. I'm Olly Dougmore, and this is Daily Politics from the new statesman. |
| 0:34.7 | Here to discuss this is the Labor MP and chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Dame Emily Thornbury. And I should flag before we start as well that we are |
| 0:41.8 | speaking. This interview is taking place before the Foreign Secretary addresses the House of Commons. |
| 0:45.7 | Emily, hello. Hello. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you. Let's get straight into it. |
| 0:51.9 | Murder, abduction, extortion. These are the tools of a cartel. And yet that is |
| 0:56.8 | exactly the way that the United States conducted itself in Venezuela at the weekend. Tell me, |
| 1:02.2 | Emily, how do you characterize what's happened? Is the language that I'm using there too coarse, |
| 1:06.9 | too abrasive? What happened in Venezuela over the weekend? I don't think you need to use language like that. I think you can take a breath and just say it's contrary to international law. |
| 1:17.6 | And we need international law. We as a country need international law. We can't have the big boys bullying everybody else, deciding that they can go into another country because they don't like it or they don't like the leader and just snatching them and putting them on trial in their own domestic courts. |
| 1:36.9 | You just can't do that. |
| 1:38.9 | And the thing about international law is that people don't very often get hauled up before the courts |
| 1:44.9 | are breaching international law. The way that it works is that the international community |
| 1:48.6 | needs to work together to condemn breaches of international law. The international law is |
| 1:54.5 | kind of what the international community says it is. And so it is important that when it is |
| 2:00.2 | breached, that people speak out clearly about it |
| 2:02.8 | and say, this is not on, you shouldn't behave like this, this is going too far, this is a breach of the |
... |
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