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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Well now, pressure is piling on the Syrian regime this morning over its crackdown on protestors that has led thousands dead and within the next hour Egypt has joined other Arab nations in recalling their Ambassador to Syria but Syria still have an Ambassador in London, so should we expel him? In a moment I’ll be speaking to Foreign Officer Minister, Alistair Burt and to Shadow Defence Secretary, Jim Murphy but also watching the discussions are our Twitter commentators today, they are deputy political editor for the Daily Telegraph, James Kirkup, Craig Woodhouse who is political correspondent at the London Evening Standard and John Higginson, the political editor for the Metro. They provide their reactions via Twitter which you can read those on the side panels, and you can also follow on our website, that’s skynews.com/politics and you can join in on Twitter using the hashtag #murnaghan. Well let’s say a very good morning to the Foreign Office Minister, Alistair Burt, who joins me from Bedfordshire. Mr Burt, first of all on this coach crash in Northern France, we know that the Foreign Office has set up a helpline, what else are officials trying to do to help those people?

ALISTAIR BURT: Well first of all there is a full consular team on its way to the site of the crash led by our Ambassador in Paris, Peter Ricketts, he is already on his way. So as soon as possible UK Foreign Office officials will be there to provide immediate consular assistance to those who are caught up in it and of course the helpline and the crisis centre we already have set up in London, is there to assist relatives and those who will understandably be desperately anxious about the sad circumstances.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Okay, presumably then help will be offered in terms of getting people treated and getting them back to the United Kingdom?

ALISTAIR BURT: Sure, the consular team is there to try and handle with the tour operators any practical details that need to be attended to. First and foremost will be the care of those that have been injured, that’s the first and most important thing. We know we can rely upon the French authorities to do all that they can in relation to that but the 101 little things that need sorting out in the aftermath of this, that’s what our consular teams are used to doing and we will be making sure that all the people with the expertise will be there but at the moment I am sure all our thoughts are with those who have been injured and those who are waiting for them back at home.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Absolutely, thanks for that Mr Burt. Now that question I posed in the introduction to you, Syria. We have seen Arab nations calling for the breaking of diplomatic relations with the Assad regime because obviously they see there being no point, why do we still maintain them? Why aren’t we kicking the Syrian ambassador out of London?

ALISTAIR BURT: Well we always keep this under very close review to see whether or not the time is right to do it but I think the important thing to stress is this is a two way thing. It’s not just about expressing our distaste to the Syrian regime through expelling the ambassador, it means we would lose our ambassador in Damascus as well and so far his view and our view has been that he still receives important information by being there. We only have a small team there, we have scaled it down for understandable reasons but we do receive information there, people know we are there so there is a symbolic presence for the UK in Damascus. At the same time we would lose that but we do understand the pressures on diplomatic relations and we do keep it very closely under review but there is a reciprocal arrangement and we are getting something out of that on behalf of those who are so concerned about the regime, that’s why our representation is still there.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: But it’s just in this co-operation with the Arab League which worked so successfully when it came to Libya, now Arab League countries, who obviously had observers in there and trying to get them back in, know a lot about what’s going on there and their judgement is it is not worth carrying on these diplomatic relations. Why are we not led by that?

ALISTAIR BURT: Well we work very closely with the Arab League. We have been very instrumental in urging progress at the United Nations on the back of the extraordinary work that they have done but we must take a judgement about whether it is appropriate for the United Kingdom to be represented in Damascus and whether of course it is still beneficial to us in terms of the information we are receiving to be there. It is a difficult judgement, I don’t make any bones of the fact that this is an easy process, it’s not but as long as we still feel it is worth us being there because of the information we can get and the help that therefore we are able to give both to the Arab League and others in this very difficult situation, so long as the balance remains in favour of us being there, we will continue to do that. But that can change at any time and we do take very careful note of what our friends and others are doing themselves in relation to this.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Okay, so many other issues to talk to you about Mr Burt. I want to ask you just briefly about Greece and we heard before that the British government has made some contingency plans for dealing with perhaps a collapse of the euro, we know that if Greece doesn’t get this latest bail out then it could well exit the euro against its volition. Many British nationals either on holiday or living in Greece could well find themselves stranded there with no ability to get any cash, what could the Foreign Office do to help them, what plans has it got?

ALISTAIR BURT: It has been a year for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to make a lot of contingency plans, going back to the crises in North Africa almost a year ago, so we are getting used now to putting things in place. We have been looking very carefully at whatever plans would need to be made in relation to that. I mean we all clearly hope it will not come to that but what we try and do is work out where UK nationals might be, work with tour operators for those on holiday of course. We have always got British nationals who are living there over a period of time and we do urge them to register with a consular system so that we can find them in situations of emergency. No UK national who is there is unaware of what is happening at the moment so we are doing our best to make sure we have got processes in place, as we do have in other parts of Europe and the world should the worst happen.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Okay, sorry to jump around, there is so much happening in so many parts of the world but Iran and its nuclear ambitions of course looming large today. I’ve got Lord Lamont coming on the programme next in actual fact and he doesn’t think that sanctions actually work against countries like Iran. It’s thumbing its nose at the international community and indeed sanctions damage British businesses.

ALISTAIR BURT: Well there is more than one purpose to sanctions. Firstly, in terms of delaying or helping to stop the nuclear programme, some sanctions are actually targeted to make sure that material for that nuclear programme can’t get through and both targeted sanctions on individual items together with financial sanctions can have that impact. But there is some evidence to indicate they’re working, we know that the real has been devalued, there is pressure on the banks, we believe that the pressure of sanctions is one of the things to encouraged the Iranians to come back to the negotiating table in December 2010 and there is some evidence they have recently responded after five months to the letter from Cathy Ashton on behalf of nuclear powers to a further invitation to talk. So there is some evidence that sanctions may be having an impact there but it is important to demonstrate through sanctions that the international community is genuinely apprehensive, really apprehensive about what Iran is doing and it is one way in which we can indicate that to show how serious we are about this commitment that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Mr Burt, thank you very much indeed for your time. Alistair Burt, Foreign Office Minister there.