A foreign secretary needs experience

Foreign policy rarely features as much as it once did in British general elections. Defence was a key issue in the 1983 and 1987 elections before Labour dropped its policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament. Brexit clearly had a major impact on the UK’s relations with Europe yet was seen more through domestic eyes despite its foreign policy implications.

But this campaign has seen little discussion beyond expressions of support for Ukraine and the argument that ensued over Nigel Farage’s comments about the role Nato played in encouraging Vladimir Putin to invade.

If Labour wins office on Friday, a highly inexperienced team will be confronted with as complex an international landscape as any seen since the Cold War. One of Sir Keir Starmer’s first acts as prime minister will be to attend a Nato summit next week marking 75 years of the alliance.

He will be alongside an American president widely regarded as no longer up to the job, a lame duck French leader and a German Chancellor whose country’s powerhouse economy is tanking rapidly. Populists are taking power across Europe even as Britain prepares to elect its most Left-wing administration since the 1970s.

The most immediate foreign policy crisis could well be a sudden influx of migrants across the Channel in the sure knowledge they will not be sent to Rwanda. Sir Keir says vaguely that he will talk to the French government about this but if the Right-wing National Rally wins power, he will have his work cut out to get a deal that involves France keeping would-be asylum seekers bound for Britain.

To navigate these waters a Labour government will need a foreign secretary of some experience and standing. The question for Sir Keir is whether that should be the shadow occupant of the role, David Lammy.

He may have to deal with a US government led by Donald Trump, whom he once called “a woman-hating neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath” and a “profound threat to the international order.”

Mr Lammy has also voted against renewing the Trident deterrent and said in 2016 that he cannot do so because of his Christian faith. Sir Keir has declined to say whether Mr Lammy will be foreign secretary and may opt for someone more experienced. Even if it causes ructions in the party, the choice he makes must be for the good of the country.