It’s been a busy week already for Andy Burnham – who approved his first military intervention as prime minister just hours before his inaugural meeting with Donald Trump.
The RAF will now provide Saudi Arabia with "purely defensive" air support against attacks from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, after Burnham agreed to Riyadh’s request.
The Saudis had earlier been turned down by Trump – so why is the new PM so happy to help? And is it really due to cost-of-living pressures as he claims?
Niall Paterson is joined by Dr H A Hellyer, an expert in geopolitics across the Middle East and Europe and a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence.
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