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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: We are going to pick up on some of those issues now with Shadow Defence Sectary, Jim Murphy, he joins us from Glasgow. A very good morning to you, Mr Murphy. I finished with Iran there with Mr Burt, your view on Iran? Douglas Alexander, your colleague was on the programme a bit earlier suggesting perhaps that the rhetoric is turned up a bit loud in terms of the volume.

JIM MURPHY: I think the point here, and Douglas was alluding to it, is the worst possible option is that Iran gets a nuclear bomb and that changes the entire dynamic and power structures and influences in the Middle East, so that’s the worst possible option is Iran getting that nuclear bomb. I don’t want my children and none of your viewers want their children or grandchildren to grow up in a world where Iran dominates that region and it leads to a nuclear arms race with the Saudis, possibly the Turks, possibly the Egyptians feeling vulnerable to the bullying of Iran’s nuclear capability so let’s work our way back from that, that Iran shouldn’t be getting a nuclear bomb, and let’s exhaust every possible peaceful and diplomatic and economic option. Let’s work harder at that, let’s tighten the noose, squeeze, squeeze and squeeze again on economic and diplomatic sanctions and let’s see where that gets us but nothing’s off the table when it comes to dealing with Iran except they should not be allowed to get a nuclear bomb.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: You seem to be agreeing with Mr Hague, the Foreign Secretary, he seems to be getting it just about right. I mean your analysis is talking about an arms race and therefore the potential of a different but a new Cold War.

JIM MURPHY: My view is to say what I think and what the Labour party’s view is and it happens to be generally in a similar place to the UK government. I thought that William Hague struck the wrong tone when he talked about a Cold War, the Cold War in the past was about global domination and everything else between the West and the Soviet Union. I think it more potentially an arms race than a Cold War but it is terrifying nevertheless that Iran seems hell bent on acquiring this capability. It is regime that the world has reason to worry about, even without nuclear capability, and it changes the region and changes the world. It is the end to any non-proliferation agreement across the globe if Iran gets that nuclear bomb and therefore that cannot happen so therefore let’s work across political divides and let’s work across the world and involve Russia and China ever more closely in making sure that Iran doesn’t acquire that capability.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Okay, to another part of the world where signals from Britain may be being misinterpreted and I’m talking about the Falklands and relations with Argentina where we’ve had a Cabinet Minister, MPs going there, the second in line to the throne, a state of the art warship and rumours of a nuclear submarine. It does seem to be Britain ratcheting the situation up doesn’t it?

JIM MURPHY: I don’t agree with that at all. Everyone has got to dial down the rhetoric when it comes to the Falklands but I don’t believe that is what’s happening from the British point of view, it’s not what the British public expect, it’s not what the British public want and I don’t believe it’s what the armed forces want and I don’t think it’s what the government seeks to do. Look, the fact that the second in line to the throne visits on a routine tour of the Falklands is a matter for his superiors and the military. Only they can decide which member of the Royal Family go to the Falklands, it’s not up to the Argentinian government to decide which member of our armed forces goes to the Falklands at what time of the year. That is not about politics, it is simply about the rotation of military planning.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: We have talked, Mr Murphy, about a lot of places and I’ll include Syria amongst them as well where British armed forces may or may not be required at some future stage to perform a humanitarian or military role. You are firmly of the view now that Britain’s ability to engage in whatever role would be required is being eroded because of the cuts?

JIM MURPHY: First of all, one more thing on the Falklands then of course I’ll talk about Syria is that some people are saying what the heck are we doing sending a member of the Royal Family to the Falklands. I think it’s a good thing that if senior members of the Royal Family are members of the armed forces, they do their bit. They’re not confined to home, they’re not confined to opening events in the UK, they do their job and that’s exactly what’s happening and we should be proud of that. Now on the situation in Syria, it can’t go on like this can it? We see on our TV screens, we see it on Sky every day, we read it in the newspapers, the horrific slaughter of civilians in Homs and elsewhere. It simply cannot be allowed to continue. Now you don’t go from there and have an automatic leap to military action, we’ve got to tighten further those economic sanctions where again we want to see some of those back markers who aren’t doing enough, looking at China and Russia, basically matching what the UK and the US and others are doing on economic sanctions and those financial transactions but more generally I do have a real worry. We are an island nation with responsibilities beyond our borders and yet we are going to have an aircraft carrier without an aircraft on it and that just doesn’t seem to make sense. So while the government has to make savings on military expenditure, of course they do, but to make a saving that leaves us for a decade not having an aircraft on our aircraft carrier just has people across the world scratching their heads.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Okay Mr Murphy, thank you very much indeed. Jim Murphy, joining us live from Glasgow, the Shadow Defence Secretary.

JIM MURPHY: Thank you.