Gavin Grey: UK Correspondent on Starmer and Trump's meeting, Gatwick airport expanding

UK Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer has put on a 'sceptical' during his meeting with US President Donald Trump. 

The pair met for nearly thirty minutes, speaking about Ukraine and trade agreements. 

What would the UK have to give for a successful trade deal? 

UK Correspondent Gavin Grey discusses this, Gatwick airport expanding to two functioning runways, and a Columbian man who flew through Europe with drugs taped to his wig. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Devin Gray's a UK correspondent, Gavin Good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hi there, right.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
I've got to say I've been a little skeptical about Starma,
but he is. What a performance he put on. We're
calling him Starma Charma or Charmer Starma over here at
the White House, very shrewd, playing to Trump's ego. All
of those things, and potentially a trade deal talks of
one at least.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yes. A very interesting press conference to pair held for
nearly thirty minutes. He and of course Donald Trump. There
was talk about Ukraine. He didn't get his way. I
don't think on that very much. He's offering to send troops,
but he wants American air cover. The President sounded very
dubious about that, suggesting Europe provided, but on trade much

(00:43):
much more upbeat and Sekre Starmer arrived with the sort
of major gift, which is a second state visit to
the UK by Donald Trump. That would be unprecedented. I
think he definitely played his ego there. Immediately Trump said
he would come and describe the king as a wonderful man,
and what a great honor it would be. He's a

(01:03):
huge Raw fan, so yeah, sakis Armer took that, knowing
that that would go down extremely well. But he let
the President do most of the talking and certainly seem
to be getting on pretty well with him. They are
so different people, they're real chalk and cheese. But I
think sakis Armer had learned to play as who said
a bit to his ego and this talk about a

(01:24):
trade deal would be a huge relief. They've been talking
about this trade deal now for years and years and years,
and when Joe Biden took over in the administration it
seemed to be even further away. He seemed to go
the other way. But Donald Trump, I think very keen
to get a trade deal. But what is the UK
going to have to give in in order to get that?
And will it mean that we don't have to suffer

(01:46):
from the tariffs which he's holding over as some kind
of threat to the EU and also partially to the UK.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
These sick and business airport in London, of courses getwork,
it's going to be allowed to expand to too, simultaneously,
funktioning runways given.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah. So the government has made since July a big
pledge of getting growth going in the UK. We really
haven't had substantial growth and they say we're going to
build as well, and one of these sort of low
hanging bits of fruit there ryan. In other words, an
easy take is this allowing to use a second runway
at Gatwick Airport, the second busiest runway, second busiest airport

(02:25):
in the UK. It's just to the south of London.
It already has two runways, but it only operates as
a single runway airport. So that's why I describe it
as the easy option. The northern runway is currently only
used for taxiing or as a backup, so it wouldn't
take a huge amount to make it operational, say within
the next five years. It's a huge plan, costing well

(02:48):
over five billion New Zealand dollars, but we're not there yet.
It still requires planning permission. Some MPs are against it,
of course, even within the government's own party. Local authorities,
the local councilors are against some of them, and indeed
it will still have to get this planning permission through
and there'll no doubt be an environmental kickback on that.

(03:09):
But this is seen to be as perhaps one of
the most obvious decisions to make when the government talks
about growth and in theory, as I mentioned, could be
done by the early twenty thirties.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Interesting, Hey, this Colombian guy who's been caught trying to
smuggle drugs, how what's he doing? How's he doing it?

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Well, he's effectively taped the drugs to the underside of
a wig and then put the wig on his head,
and he's tried to smuggle with some eighteen thousand worth
and New Zealand dollars worth of cocaine. However, as we
probably all could say, Ryan, we've seen some very convincing wigs,
and then we've seen some not so convincing wigs. And

(03:48):
I have to say this man who came from the
Rafael Nunez International Airport flying into Amsterdam, Netherlands, had perhaps
the least convincing wig I've seen. The forty year old
attempted board the plane and footage shows him being talked
to by police, showing the wig being cut off from
the man's head to reveal nineteen capsules of the substance,

(04:11):
weighing some two hundred and twenty grams worth of cocaine.
He's been arrested on suspicion of trafficking, and no doubt
the Dutch authority is very pleased to be keeping that
drug out of their nation.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Certainly Kevin and always always buy the good wig, I
guess is them all of the story. Kevin Gray UK corresponded.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
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