Keir Starmer has moved on rather quickly from Labour conference, pitching up in New York to tell Israel that it can use ‘no more excuses’ and must allow more aid into Gaza.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly, the Prime Minister also called for an immediate ceasefire, and said there needed to be a ‘credible and irreversible path to a viable Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure state of Israel’. He added: ‘That is the only way to provide security and justice to both Israelis and Palestinians.’ He also turned on Russia, saying he didn’t know how the country could ‘show its face in the building’.
This was a forceful speech from the Prime Minister, one designed to underline his claim that Britain is now taking ‘responsible global leadership’ with him in charge. He told the meeting: ‘This is the moment to reassert fundamental principles and our willingness to defend them. To recommit to the UN, to internationalism, to the rule of law.’ He was largely contrasting his leadership with that of the Conservatives, but there is always a nod to the turbulent past few years of the Labour party, and the ambivalence of the Corbynites to Russian aggression.
Starmer did make a number of points about foreign policy in his conference speech yesterday, but they were a little muffled by his verbal slip when he called for a ‘return of the sausages’. It was particularly unfortunate given Starmer has already upset the Israeli government with the way he chose to announce the suspension of some arms export licences on the day some of the murdered hostages were being buried. Today he showed that he is less concerned with keeping Israel on side than he was a year ago, anyway, and that he thinks ‘responsible global leadership’ involves being critical of a country that had assumed Britain would always have its back.
Comments