I'm Gita Hari standing in for Ed Vasey and we're going to be unpacking the politics of the day from whether Donald Trump really knows what he wants to achieve in Iran, to the backlash of the government's plan for to pay asylum seekers.

He gives £40,000 to leave the UK. We'll try and find some space for some of the fun stuff too. I'm joined by Opinion and Features Editor at Citi-M. Alice Denby, good morning. Hello, thank you for having me. Are you enjoying this week or is it deeply traumatic or is it a bit of both? It's a bit of both. I suppose at Citi-M we mostly talk about the economic impact of this and you're just like it's bad that's yeah one word can

sum it up and the former diplomatic editor of the times michael binion 14 countries affected by war

and rising potentially and the knock on effect on the global economy and all of that this is

actually bread and butter for you isn't it it is yes we're all, we're all there, armchair generals, plotting strategy, deciding how we should fix things, war aims and all that. Right, well, let's start with that. Then, what are the war aims, as far as you can see? I mean, the toppling of the Ayatollah, you know, happened in the first few hours. There's a little bit of, you know, Hamlet's dead. why are we still at theatre? I think that's the question a lot of people are asking, and a lot now are significantly asking it in America as well. They're beginning to say, well, what is the strategy? How does this end? What is victory? What does Trump actually want to do? I mean, Trump has now said he wants to choose the next supreme leader. I mean, you begin to wonder, does the guy

quite know, you know, what's happening on the ground and what he thinks is an appropriate role

for outsiders in Iran? We don't know. I mean, I think it's just see where it goes. And at some point,

I suppose Trump would suddenly say, we've done what we want, we've destroyed their missiles,

we've made it impossible for them

to develop a nuclear weapon, and that's it, we've won, and then stop, maybe, or maybe not.

I will come to the politics of it in a nanosecond with Alice, but what do you make of where

Britain has gone from, you know, very, very clear, only defensive action will be contemplated and all the implications of that

and an implied criticism of the US with a suggestion that the action is illegal, that it hasn't got

a realistic goal and all that, to this morning, David Lammy, sort of announcing that the RAF could be

bombing sites in Iran itself?

Yes, I think that's pretty unlikely.

I don't think that's Starmers line at all.

I mean, if more missiles land on friendly Gulf countries,

which is where Britain has more of a responsibility,

and particularly if they land on the British bases in Cyprus,

then there is a real case for saying we actually need a more

aggressive defensive policy. I think the original distinction is right, although a lot of people

...