The UK prime minister is jetting off again later today, heading to Italy for talks with his counterpart, Giorgia Meloni.

We are hearing this morning that the PM will be asking her about her deal with Albania to send asylum seekers there, and we ask the foreign secretary if Sir Keir Starmer is looking at a similar system.

David Lammy replies that the focus is on stopping small boat crossings, and “the Italians have achieved very significant results in reducing the amount of Albanians that have made their way, particularly into Italy”.

The deal Italy has is “comprehensive” that also involves upstream work stopping people making their way to Italy in the first place, and they have had “success” with it.

“We want to work in a coordinated way with our European allies” to “smash the gangs” and reduce illegal migration.

But the foreign secretary rejects the notion that there is any similarity between the Rwanda scheme and Italy’s Albania scheme, noting that the Rwanda policy “breached international law”.

The new government, he says, is “getting into detail about how we genuinely smash the gangs, how we genuinely work with European allies on upstream work, and are serious about reducing the numbers that we’re seeing”.

Lammy: ‘We won’t be bullied by Putin’s shameless grandstanding’

Earlier this week, Russia’s Vladimir Putin threatened NATO if Ukraine is allowed to use long-range missiles in Russia’s territory – here is what he said:

We ask Foreign Secretary David Lammy about the threat, and he replies: “Putin threatens every few months to use nuclear weapons. It’s totally unacceptable.

“We won’t be bullied by Putin’s shameless grandstanding.”

He goes on: “We cannot support this kind of gross fascist imperialism in Europe in the 21st century. We must do everything we can to repel it.”

The foreign secretary says that there will “of course” be a dialogue with Russia at some stage, as that is how wars are ended.

“But clearly the posture of Putin at this stage does not suggest a man who’s up for negotiation.”

David Lammy is the Member of Parliament for Tottenham and the Shadow Foreign Secretary. One of the leading agenda-setters in the fields of social activism, diversity and multi-culturalism, he was a member of the previous Labour Government (2001-2010), is respected across the party spectrum and is a well-known figure amongst the general public. He was Shadow Justice Secretary from April 2020 until November 2021.