Editorial | Act now on UK relations

After Labour’s landslide victory in last week’s election, Britain’s new foreign secretary, David Lammy, claimed that after years of being inward-looking, the UK was reconnecting with the world, including the Global South.

Mr Lammy, who is of Afro-Guyanese parentage, has, for instance, preened over a telephone discussion he had with a group of Caribbean leaders in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, which caused significant damage in several islands, including Jamaica.

“They were delighted that I was calling, reaching out to them in a time of immense crisis – one that is existential to them,” he told The Guardian newspaper.

While Labour might indeed adopt a more favourable posture than its predecessor to the developing world – including being more receptive to initiatives to address the climate crisis – Caribbean countries shouldn't expect empathy to quickly, or passively, transform to major policy actions in their favour.

Regional leaders, therefore, must immediately articulate the issues and policies they wish to partner with Britain, or seek its support, and urgently pursue them with Mr Lammy while they have his attention and he feels any sense of bond with the Caribbean.

DISTRACTED

For with respect to international relations, the foreign secretary is likely to be soon be distracted managing what Britain sees as its foreign policy priorities, at the top of which is its so-called special relationship with the United States, which is complicated by a need to weigh what it does with the Biden administration and the possibility of Donald Trump’s return as president, with a division of the world.

Closer to home, Mr Lammy will also likely be busy attempting to bolster support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, at the same time promoting Labour’s hoped-for closer economic and security partnerships with the European Union, while honouring the fact of Brexit.

Then there is the new government’s intention of a kind of straddling relationship with China; maintaining economic and trade ties on its own terms, while being aggressive on security and human-rights concerns, without appearing to be dragged into a more hostile American orbit.

But even more important than all of this is what Prime Minister Keir Starmer sees as his government’s critical mission. Foreign policy, outside the big issues involving major global players, among which is finalising a trade deal with India, is likely to be secondary.

Domestic matters upon which Labour was elected, such as fixing the National Health Service, tackling inflation and upgrading infrastructure, are urgent.

“I reminded the entire Cabinet that we will be judged by our actions, not our words,” Mr Starmer said on Saturday, after the first meeting of the new Cabinet.

By personality, as well as his appreciation of the confluence of circumstances that got him to Downing Street, Mr Starmer has good reason to heed his own advice.

CAREFULLY ASSESS

So while Labour’s manifesto talked of asserting leadership on the global climate crisis and building “genuine respect and partnership with the Global South to support common interests”, Mr Starmer will carefully assess how global relationships affect domestic political realities.

He appears to be a pragmatic politician with a ruthless transactional streak, rather than someone with a clear ideology, although he roams somewhere just left of centre.

He knows that Labour’s big win was driven largely by Britons having grown fed up with 14 years of Conservative rule, marked by their failure to deliver what they promised from Brexit and constant infighting over policy and personalities. Mr Starmer understands also that the Tories’ significant victory in 2019 under Boris Johnson was helped by the perception of Labour’s then leader, Jeremy Corbyn, as a looney leftist, who was incompetent to boot. This characterisation of Mr Corbyn was deliberately fanned by some of his top colleagues.

Mr Starmer moved Labour to the right to create an “electable party”. In the process, ruthlessly orchestrated Mr Corbyn’s exit from the party, and came close to doing so with Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black female member of parliament, who is of Jamaican parentage.

Further, his between-the-raindrops-don’t-get-wet posture on the Gaza war and Palestinian statehood, as well as Labour’s willingness to sacrifice some traditional Muslim votes (at the cost of a handful of parliamentary seats) appeared calculated to ensure that Labour’s breach of the Tory’s ‘blue wall’ of voters was not threatened.

The same concern could make Labour under Mr Starmer wary that any frontal engagement of the issues of the Global South could stress its new coalition, and therefore cautious in its approach to these matters.

The good thing is Mr Starmer’s pledge to attack difficult issues early on, which hopefully includes those that are of interest to this region. Further, the Caribbean should strike while they still have a receptive ear in David Lammy.