{"id":21034,"date":"2023-01-27T10:27:40","date_gmt":"2023-01-27T10:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/?p=21034"},"modified":"2023-01-27T14:23:46","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T14:23:46","slug":"patient-diplomacy-and-reconnected-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/2023\/01\/patient-diplomacy-and-reconnected-britain\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Patient Diplomacy\u2019 and \u2018Reconnected Britain\u2019: Distilling the Differences in Conservative and Labour Foreign Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy set out Labour\u2019s vision for UK foreign policy, a vision which placed \u2018reconnecting Britain\u2019 at its heart, rebuilding relationships with our allies and forging new partnerships with emerging and developing nations. The parallels with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly\u2019s speech last month<\/a> were evident and it is clear that there remains a substantial degree of consensus between the two main political parties on many of the key issues facing UK foreign policy. But where do the fault lines between the two parties lie? What difference (if any) will the winner of the next election really make to UK foreign policy?<\/p>\n

International Partnerships<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the core of both Cleverly\u2019s and Lammy\u2019s visions for UK foreign policy is a pride in the UK\u2019s historic role as a trusted international partner and supporter of multilateralism. In seeking to reinvigorate this position, both parties are advocating for reform of the United Nations Security Council and reinvigoration of institutions such as the G7 and the G20. They both also used their speeches to reaffirm their commitment to NATO, a particularly important statement for the Labour party, given Starmer\u2019s tussle with members of his own party over NATO membership last year.<\/p>\n

Both parties\u2019 approaches to international partnerships are also underpinned by a sense of pragmatism and respect, with ideology and values appearing to take a backseat. For the Conservatives, their flagship initiative of \u2018patient diplomacy\u2019 is focused on investing in relationships on the principle of mutual respect and partnership, without \u201ctelling others what they should do\u201d. Meanwhile Lammy believes that the current geopolitical context \u201ccalls for pragmatism in relation to UK foreign policy, not ideology\u201d, urging cooperation where necessary and possible with strategic rivals such as China.<\/p>\n

These approaches are also underpinned by a recognition of the shifting geopolitical centre of gravity and the need for the UK to build partnerships that maintain its international standing even as these shifts occur. As such, while Lammy has rejected the language of an Indo-Pacific \u2018tilt\u2019, the general premise of the need to look toward the Indo-Pacific region is the same. For both parties, partnerships with India, including the UK-India free trade agreement, are clearly seen as part of the solution, as is membership of CPTPP.<\/p>\n

The European Union<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, and despite Rishi Sunak being seen as more pragmatic than his immediate predecessors \u00a0on the EU, it’s in the parties\u2019 approaches to cooperation with the EU where the sharpest fault lines appear. Facing significant pressure from the Brexiteer conservative European Research Group not to be seen to concede on the Northern Ireland protocol, Sunak\u2019s willingness and ability to find routes to improved cooperation with the EU are being tested. While we look to slowly be approaching an agreement over the Northern Ireland protocol, it was striking that Cleverly\u2019s vision statement made no reference to collaboration with the EU, with Europe itself only referenced within a security context.<\/p>\n

In contrast, David Lammy was much more willing to offer warm words towards the European Union. While standing firm that the UK would not rejoin the EU, the Single Market or the Customs Union, reconnecting Britain to Europe was identified as the top priority for the next Labour Foreign Office. This includes commitments around security, including a new UK-EU security pact and regular UK-EU summits, and around increasing trade with the European Union, reducing friction in the import and export of goods, facilitating the mutual recognition of standards and unblocking participation in the Horizon research scheme.<\/p>\n

The differences here are more than just semantics: regardless of Sunak\u2019s own views on cooperation with the EU, he will always be constrained by factions in his own party, while for Labour it is clear that rebuilding trade and security relations with the EU will be a cornerstone of their approach to the international sphere.<\/p>\n

International Development <\/strong><\/p>\n

To both parties\u2019 dismay as they strive to demonstrate fiscal discipline, the big question in the aid and development sector continues to be around funding. In November the UK government announced a \u00a31.7 billion cut to the aid budget, the third cut in as many years and under the current government, the UK is not expected to return to its commitment to spending 0.7% of GNI until 2027-28. Lammy\u2019s speech was warmer on 0.7% but he refused to be drawn into making a concrete commitment, declaring that it would be \u201cirresponsible\u201d to set out their spending plans at this stage.<\/p>\n

A Labour government would, however, see changes in the structure of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with Lammy branding the decision to merge the FCDO and DFID as \u201cridiculous and stupid\u201d. While Lammy has made clear he won\u2019t bring back DFID, Labour is set to consider a \u2018new model\u2019 for the department, although there is yet to be any detail on what that means in practice.\u00a0 A return to a self-contained aid administration within the FCDO, with ringfenced budgets, closer to the pre-1997 model, is one option.<\/p>\n

Climate Action<\/strong><\/p>\n

From being named as the UK\u2019s number one international priority in 2021, climate action has fallen down the current government\u2019s priority list, and beyond improving the climate resilience of developing nations, was conspicuously absent from Cleverly\u2019s speech. In contrast, Lammy declared that Labour\u2019s foreign policy would be centred on the climate emergency. Framed as a security and prosperity issue as much as an ethical one, Lammy committed Labour to pushing for climate action to become the fourth pillar at the United Nations, the creation of a new law of ecocide and to building a clean power alliance of nations committed to 100% clean power by 2030, drawing a clear dividing line between the two parties.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Security<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, on security, both parties have emphasised that their commitment to European security is resolute and it is clear that regardless of who is in power, the UK will continue to stand firmly with Ukraine. On China, Cleverly and Lammy are also broadly united, both advocating for forthright condemnation of human rights abuses but cooperation on key global issues, notably climate. This marks a step change in the rhetoric seen under former Prime Minister Liz Truss\u2019 leadership, which saw a marked heightening of rhetorical tensions around China. Nonetheless, and while not officially labelled as such, it is clear that Cleverly\u2019s \u2018patient diplomacy\u2019 is designed to provide a viable alternative to China to the developing world. Meanwhile, Labour\u2019s commitment to an audit of the UK-China relationship marks a first step towards greater clarity over what their approach to China would look like in practice, something both parties have so far struggled to get to grips with.<\/p>\n

Future Dividing Lines<\/strong><\/p>\n

Foreign policy has, historically, been one of the areas of greatest cross-party consensus and it is clear that headed into the next general election with the two party\u2019s visions as they are, considerable overlap remains. Labour is unlikely to see advantage in campaigning on a foreign policy platform significantly different from the current consensus. However, foreign policy is also one of the most volatile and unpredictable policy areas, evidenced not least by the fact the Integrated Review is being refreshed just two years after its initial publication. As these visions are stress tested by the complex geopolitical world around us, and as a general election creeps ever closer, the divergences we can already see in these visions, in particular around climate action, international development and the EU, are likely to sharpen.<\/p>\n

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With both the Conservative and Labour parties setting out their visions for UK foreign policy, Evie Aspinall explores where the fault lines lie between the two parties on foreign policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":21002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-uk-perspectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}