now today's coverage of international news stories. regrets - he's got a few. keir starmer marks his first year in office by listing what's gone wrong - from sacked staff and policy u-turns, like today's on welfare, to gloomy speeches and family freebies. as he enters his second year in office next week, we ask our stellar political panel - can things only get better?

good evening, this is matt chorley with your friday newsnight - live from broadcasting house across the uk and around the world on bbc news. a new labour prime minister, months after a stunning victory, brought low by u-turns, sleaze and a massive rebellion on welfare, before going on to win a second landslide. oh, no, hang on - that was tony blair. back in the present, keir starmer is faring less well, and speaking to his biographer in an article this weekend, he details the things he wished he'd done differently. there's plenty to talk about, and fortunately we've got the best possible panel of pundits to put it into context, with a splash of gossip, history, spin and polling. the times' chief political commentator, patrick maguire. former theresa may spinner, kirsty buchanan. political biographer and historian sir anthony seldon. and more in common pollster luke tryl. this you turn on welfare, is it enough to win that boat next week? i think the vote passing next week has gone from

impossible to likely are they on it was. i don't think anything is certain with a parliamentary party this free will. the times reported earlier that the number of rebels had reduced to about 50. that is a safe number, but in terms of how it's landed, i mean come about as badly as is possible to land. there's a lot of ill feeling at the top of governments within downing street, within the web office, within the treasury, certainly, and, you know, keir starmer began this week with a decent amount of authority and he ends it, sadly, with that authority considerably diminished. it sounds like nobody is heavy this week. how can the government get a grip on this? i think that they've done what they've needed to do, the bare minimum to stave off the rebels, but having said that, his authority is hugely diminished. they need to have a course correct. if i were advising them and giving them some unwanted advice, this needs a reset with your own parliamentary party. i've been astonished this week to learn that some labour mps have never

spoken. i spoke on my show, someone elected last year, never spoken to them. if i were the web office i would start a small group of informal, coming in to meet the prime minister, getting a temperature check and stop this high-handed attitude of number 10 thinking, we've got a working majority of 165, we can tell our labour backbenchers what to do. i think those days are gone. whatever the public on this, do they support what the government was doing before? do they support what they are doing now? the government managed to land on both sides of public opinion on this wrong. we know the public think we should be getting more people off benefits we should be getting people back into work, the problem with these disability benefit cuts, and we heard it time after time and focus groups was so many people knew people who were reliant on those benefits and they would say, well, yeah, in general we should cut benefits, but on pip, i know someone who needs it, they needed to look after their child. and interestingly,

particularly amongst those who voted for labour last year, it was a problem for them with these cuts. i think changing, making concessions, making them less harsh, the right thing in terms of public opinion and difficulty is that when we ask people this week is the government in control of things, seven in ten said that they weren't. and i just wonder that dropping this was such a flagship reform is going to contribute to that sense that this isn't a government that's got a grip. this is not the first labour prime minister who has tried to cut spending or do something on welfare and it's come up against his party. no labour prime minister, certainly not since 1945, has begun so badly. the government has such ignorance of history and how you conduct yourself as prime minister, what you do, and so this is why i think it is so bad for him two reasons, just fits a narrative that there is a prime minister who

is incapable of telling a story. if there was a clear vision that he'd laid out, a story about where he is taking the labour government in the country, people might perhaps understand why this cut was necessary, but there have been so many flip-flops that they don't get it, and secondly he doesn't understand that the prime minister is only there if you keep and carry your mps with you. and taking for granted they are not going to like it. and it tells a story of a fundamentally incompetent prime minister, and unless he learns, i've read two very excellent profiles of him, but he's repeating the same mistakes. he thinks it's all about the detail, and, you know, take our teta, and if he was to go and save our teta and his beloved arsenal, it art out of a sense is actually my job is to fix the problem with the seats in the stadium or the locker room, he would just get

fed up. our teta is about picking the strategy for arsenal to win. he's got to follow what leaders do. he doesn't know that. in terms of where this leaves the government, they are now in the position where labour mps won't support cuts in spending. in fact are demanding more spending. so where does that leave rachel reeves? in a very bad place. or spending plans have been blown up by the parliamentary party twice over. this isn't a small amount of money in the context of the minuscule amount of headroom rachel reeves left her cell. this is about £3 billion, by the way the treasury are very unhappy about that and they took the prime minister basically to intervene on thursday evening and say, no, we are definitely doing this, no matter how unhappy you are. in the problem for rachel reeves and for keir starmer, even if the parliamentary party is close to his instincts than those of the treasury and people in number 10 is what labour mps have found twice

over is if they shout and scream and say we will not put up with us, number 10 and the treasury, may be well but the number 10 will fold and say ok you can have exactly what you want in there two big things coming down the track, and immigration bill and similar reforms on special educational needs, which ministers say, ultimately some people are going to lose their provision, lose the entitlements they are after, on this evidence, they are never, ever going to say we are going to vote to take anything away from anybody. in terms of the future of rachel reeves, how is she... i know you've got some polling that we can see about they seem pretty linked, keir starmer and rachel reeves, at least in the public mind. they come in not particularly popular, lukewarm approval for the chance are the prime minister, and what you see is all most immediately, literally zero honeymoon, their approvals decline in lockstep together. they are inextricably

linked in the public's mind. one exception is you get a bit of a bump for keir starmer when ukraine happens, the oval office meeting, people quite like starmer the mediator but broadly they've moved together. although there is this perception that rachel reeves is becoming the unpopular face of this government, the truth is they are in it together. is at brown blair, cameron osborne? how do you see this relationship? two people together whose fate hung together in blair brown was really a terrible relationship, i mean, it undid a lot of the momentum for what labour could have achieved. they both wanted the job. so i think the question about rachel reeves 's who would do the job as well as her, i can't see anybody coming in what is the new story that you could tell? but it is not, on the other hand, good enough for a chance are to remain in office only because there's nobody better. it's a bit like

starmer himself, if he gets to the point he's lost the initiative and prime ministers are either in control or they are not. he's not really in control at the moment. the only reason to keep them as there is no one clear who the anyone can unite around. that's not good for a prime minister. the public would not whether a change in leadership. it would be terrible for the country. you are not advising them to change leaders at this point? didn't work out that well for the conservatives, did it? next week, officially marks a year since the general election and keir starmer entering number 10. to mark the occasion, the observer newspaper this weekend runs a piece by his biographer and former labour spin doctor, tom baldwin. in it, the prime minister reveals the things that he thinks he got wrong. here we've picked out a few. sue gray's an excellent person. her reputation goes before her. i am confident that sue gray is a woman of incredible integrity and experience.

# if i could turn back time... and that's why we have to take action and do things differently. things will get worse before they get better. # if i could find a way... why does the prime minister need to get his wardrobe sponsored? the important thing in all of this is that we follow the rules, so that everything is transparent. # i'd take back those words that have hurt you... nations depend on rules, fair rules. now, n a diverse nation like ours, and i celebrate that, these rules become even more important. without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers. # if i could turn back time # if i could turn back time...#

so, in the observer feature, during a number of interviews, keir starmer says he got it wrong on sue gray, that she wasn't the right person for the job. he says his rose garden speech on the economy "squeezed the hope out". his handling of the freebies row involving clothes and free tickets for his family dragged on because he got "emotionally involved". and on using the "island of strangers" line in a speech on immigration, which some said echoed enoch powell, he said: "i deeply regret using it." he also says he should have read through the speech properly and "held it up to the light a bit more". how are they responding this tonight? let's not respond with a corporate view. people who might be in and out of number 10 might have desks in number 10, not all of them are thrilled by the timing of this intervention, and why might that be? look, it's clearly inconvenient to have the prime minister to basically come out and say, i've got a lot of things wrong. my strategy that

i put so much political capital into has gone completely wrong. it's very striking and unusual to hear that from a politician, but i think this is why wrinkling in the bits of the labour party and bits of top of government are what he is doing is basically questioning the judgment of other people. one of the weird features of keir starmer's premiership is that so much of what he does and says is coming in the case of his speech quite literally, written for him by other people, strategies written for him by other people, words written for other people, not necessarily unusual, but he's basically delegated so much of his political strategy and his thinking to other people. so insane, oh, i don't like this, i don't have a first year has gone, he is saying basically, i was listening to those guys, turns out, that's not really me. which is a striking thing for the prime and start to say. what is the wisdom of these soft interviews feature things? they are more dangerous often than straightforward. the timing is really unfortunate.

having an entire interview about how i got it wrong on a week when you've got a couple of pretty significant things wrong again is really unfortunate. look, it's designed to humanise him more, to help voters connect with him outside of knowing that his father was a toolmaker, there is very little we know about him personally. it is far too mia coppola, and the problem we've got, i read a brilliant book about keir starmer come across the most is he's completely apolitical, and that some of the problem, back to anthony's point about not having a story or a narrative. that is because he doesn't have a core. of the thing with pragmatism as you end up not having any principles or any story of which to build your government framework around and you end up with desperate policies. is it possible the public like someone who says, look, i got that wrong, admits

it, doesn't pretend otherwise, learns from it, they probably don't you ploughing on with something that you think is daft. most people are normal, right? if you are doing something that they don't like, they quite like it when you stop doing the thing they don't like. and i think he has a problem with connecting with people. we founded in focus groups in the run-up to the election, afterwards, humanising does matter. and i think the most important parts of those some of the most important of those regrets was the rose garden, because i thought from a public opinion perspective, that speech was total political malpractice. we have had austerity food and 2008, when are we going to get to the good stuff? and they lost all that momentum, that change mandate because it looked like it was going to be more osborne and cameron. as we are discovering tonight, it's a big job being a prime minister. striding across the world stage, fixing things back at home and keeping your party onside. so let's take a more

detailed look at how he's fared on each front. let's start with keir starmer's performance as global statesman. can i present a letter from mccain. you very much. am i supposed to read it right now? -- a letter from the cane. ladies and gentlemen, britain is back on the world stage. working with our partners doing deals that will grow our economy. -- letters from the king. this is a historic day for the united kingdom and for india, this is the biggest trade deal that we the uk have done since we left the eu. a deal with the us, the eu, standing with ukraine, not a bad record, is it? perform well on the world stage as opposed to domestically, former chief of staff for tony blair and that level of experience. national security. national security and clearly showing and yes, they are not, their

sector deals but that is a successful set of trade deals in the negotiations are better working relationship with europe and managed to handle donald trump probably better than any other european leader and well is anybody can and getting on iran but, you know, not the first person be blindsided by some of the donald trump did. but on an international stage, he is faring quite well. i agree with what she is saying. we did may be expecting to do it as well as he has done. and it's been helped hugely by tony blair's people in the conservatives who is his big foreign policy adviser. at which point he has been told what to do but that is what happens to a prime minister but they have to presented in a convincing way in talking about his strategy it's a brilliant book but i didn't see the strategy at all,

i just see a believe that he can carry on and be director of public and the central appoint or understand with a prime minister's job is with the various jobs around them are in istanbul on foreign policy and partly because he is reacting and he has been best at home when he was reacting and conservative prime minister did not get it. but if you didn't have a clear plan a strategy or vision, then that is telling you how to act and you therefore are stronger when you are reacting on a foreign stage and in this country, he needs now and i do think, for this actually, he might survive and it will be terrible for the country that have yet another prime minister yet another chancellor in the left laughing stock is

unconscionable. true blood, unless he actually starts taking seriously, reading some history when he is away over the summer and realise what the job a prime minister is and what some of their predecessors and there's a lot of predecessors and looking three, we can still do this but not if he carries on at the moment. one of your books as well as patrick and let's go back. keir back home, keir starmer has promised to rebuild britain, with a particular focus on the health service. luke, is this what the public want? management of the nhs back to democratic control by abolishing the arm's-length body nhs england. and that will put the nhs back at the heart of government where it belongs. sir patrick, without blowing their own trumpet about it, is the government doing a lot of the groundwork,

we've cut them in nationalising the railways and trying to do more on energy, all of that is going on by the six-time. the spending review which is done a lot of long-term investment in infrastructure and its keir starmer would say, we are fixing the foundations to deliver change but the problem is, and this goes back to your point about strategy, they're doing a lot of long-term stuff neck authentically keir starmer, looking at systems intently, trying to fix them in an unglamorous and not show off way but with a been doing is feeling the here and now and in the narrow electoral sentence, how to best for the form or even if something is authentically keir starmer that he's been banging on about tying my immigration since 2016, it is presented in a way that is an authentically keir starmer think the fascinating

thing is that it's not just the absence of a strategy bits of the prime ministers begin to articulate a strategy for himself does authentically him. he is basically saying i want to meet nigel as an out and proud progressive which is not what you get and sing actually left me those voters where we are. in the year of being a prime minister and leader of the opposition. is messy, it is keir starmer. given that laundry list of things they're doing, that's what them people care about, does that payoff come the next election if they can point at all these things that they have done or do they need to make sure people are still listening to them? if works, if you ask the public to describe britain in a word, the word that always comes up is broken and people know it needs fixing and they know it will take time and impatient for change, the more distressing progress now immediately but the one thing i would say

there's a bright spot to government and focus groups, it is the nhs. from the first time the study can go see actually come as a bit shorter than i thought to get an appointment, it is easier to get on that waiting list and you laugh at it but that really matters because that's the day-to-day stuff that matters to people in the nhs really maddens to britain. in one thing we're really proud of you getting that working getting that fixed is the key test of the government. let's come back and after looking, having promised to govern "country first, party second", keir starmer and his team are discovering that the party might be ungovernable. patrick, lots of briefing against morgan mcsweeney - but he masterminded the election victory which got them their seats? what should starmer do now? you won't find many labour mps who are not accepting we need reform, so we are absolutely on the page with them. is it tough going? are there plenty of people, noises off? yes, of course, there always are, there always have been, there always will be. talking about his mps,

his colleagues as noises off is partly why he's in the problems he's in. noises off! one theresa may had her own problems with their own mps and enormous majority, or any majority at all but what do you do with the situation like this? is a just lots of, briefing and not in the tea rooms to get them down to checkers and looked them all in the eye and say what do they want and they'll tell you different things? one of the things of how badly handled this last week is been is it was the last week before was handled it all. if anyone had cared to read the newspapers, this rebellion has been coming for, you know, at least a month and what has anyone been doing about it and when it finally

comes right up to crisis point, the webs natural reaction, and i get it, you have the majority is do what you're told. pick the whip away from you, etc. the trouble that they've got once they have a lacking majority, hundred 31 of those seats are the majority of less than 5000 and allow those people are never going to get onto the payroll because they have such an enormous majority and what will they do and facing reform might challenge her and probably not going to be because i'm not in with the keir starmer in crowd i'm not going to get promoted up the ministerial ladder so i would champion with my constituents want and once you end up winning on some of the pushback, you end up with a tail wagging the dog. lots of briefing in the papers about mcsweeney the chief of staff and the mastermind of their election campaign and now,

they're all saying that he is the source of these problems, what is going on in number ten? is he going to stay? never, keir starmer was never leader of the party without morgan sweeney. that is not to say that the keir starmer in mcsweeney project is a project they had to take a really difficult decisions but sometimes cut across to antagonize labour activists in the national interest to save the centreleft from itself. mps of comprehensively forwarded to say we do not like doing politics that way and keir starmer, interestingly a strand to articulate, i really don't want to face right, i want to look left to be myself that's the really interesting take away from this week's. in ten seconds, what should keir starmer do now? i think he needs to build and go on this reform this left block and actually, there is a unifying agenda which unites most of the

country, the nhs, cost of living in control of migration. asked to give confidence and optimism and we have to get growth, and our growth, no real difference to the nhs and other parties in downing street, unless you're seeing the up in the polls in the optimism, nothing will change. ten seconds. you have to have a purpose and division and the direction of travel and what are you in government for and what did we vote for? what do you stand for? if you cannot work out which strategies wants to follow and different from his advisers, he should work out which set of them should resign either him or his advisers because this is not going to work. we're just going to help, tonight, president trump said he would "absolutely" consider bombing iran again - it caps off a week in which the president's order for military action in the middle east has

brought him into conflict with what are usually some of the strongest supporters of his make america great again movement. if the intelligence reports conclude that iran can enrich uranium to a level that concerns you, would you consider bombing the country again? sure. without question. absolutely. and have you had any confirmation...? turned out to be unbelievable. so, is there trouble within the maga movement? i'm joined now by republican insider matthew foldi, editor in chief at the washington reporter. donald trump said he would absolutely consider bombing iran again, how would that go down? i think the divisions are far overstated if you look at actual polling, americans more broadly in republicans and trump in specifically, the strikes like what he did are incredibly popular. there's some very loud voices, tucker carlson being the most prominent of the nursing any serious action which we did in america do would lead to world war iii. i spent last week in

israel on a journalist trip, hiding from iranian ballistic missiles for five days i'm sitting here in america now, last i checked, world war iii is not happening and where you break them were americans, republicans were trumped voters and democrats are putting, we are not fans of islamic terrorism, were not fans of countries like iran that parade deranged lunatics screaming death to america, getting nuclear weapons and how did we get here? i think you guys obviously saw there were divisions in with the trump administration prior to the strikes will stop at this point, from what i've seen what i covered, republicans in congress and some democrats are totally buying trump in the wind is been taken out of the sales and efforts to restrict and curb donald trump's power to do strikes like this and politically for democrats, it's kind of bad optics and foolishness republicans had tried to impeach barack obama

after he got them bin laden and a lot understand the existential threat of a nuclear iran would post. the divisions are there but they are very overstated it's been another busy day for the president - the supreme court has moved to the curb the power of lower courts to block the president's executive orders. he is cheering now, but republicans used exactly this route for challenging biden's orders. could this backfire? yes, good question. this is why some people on the right like mitch mcconnell famously are very pro-keeping things like the filibuster intact because no party in america, no party in britain is going to be in charge forever. short term, this is a huge win for donald trump, ruling on birthright citizenship is a big victory from the and he is a racing look, i want to apply forward and not be stopped by these

nationwide injunctions and not be stopped by these nationwide injunctions in this document to present new power but is curbing the power of individual judges in america and people like donald trump see that is a huge rebalancing of the scales of justice and it is kind of crazy, regardless of who is president if there is some random judge who no one elected is able to derail the entire federal policy of america but hopefully now, people have stability, generally, stability is a good thing and of no random judge is able to just derail and administration, that can pose a huge problem. i appreciate you joining us on a busy night. keir starmer is a lot to sort out with donald trump. yes, an awful lot. there's going to be a huge amount for keir starmer to be talking about donald trump specifically with the were continuing.

that's it. victoria's back on monday. until then, have a good weekend. that's your newsnight. goodnight. i'm in washington and this is bbc world news america. us president donald trump declares victory after the supreme court limits the power of judges to curb executive orders. dozens more people are killed near aid distribution sites in gaza - as aid groups and israel trade accusations, about who is responsible.