Starmer’s speech to the world

Freddie Hayward, New Statesman writer — Freddie

Good morning from New York. Freddie here. This week Keir Starmer was taken from the Labor conference in Liverpool to Turtle Bay, New York, to address the UN General Assembly. He and his foreign minister, David Lammy, faced a bizarre jamboree. I have two reports for you today from within the UN. Read them below.

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Internationalism is now a defining feature – and a promise – of the Labor government. At the General Assembly yesterday, Keir Starmer delivered a clear and unequivocal message: Britain is ready to work as an equal partner with other countries to tackle global warming, war and the threat to the rule of law. He was there to combat the ‘fatalism’ that he fears has now gripped the international community.

He offered a hopeful but apologetic message. “I think the international system can be better. We need to get better,” he said. “(We must move) from the paternalism of the past to (the) partnership of the future.” So British paternalism. You got the sense that he was more comfortable making a speech at the United Nations than at the Labor conference. This is a man steeped in international law. He remembers reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a university student. “It had a profound impact on me,” he told the sparse audience in the dull, spaceship-like hall of the General Assembly. Let’s not forget that Starmer wrote an 883-page book on EU human rights law.

The “high-level” week of the UN General Assembly dominates the diplomatic calendar. The leader of each country gives a speech. Starmer spoke after Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and before Nepal’s KP Sharma Oli. (Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray and several other aides from Number 10 watched from the sidelines alongside the Nepalese delegation.) Britain’s permanent seat on the Security Council means the UN is a final institution where their voice matters. This was an opportunity for this new, unknown Prime Minister to reset other countries’ perception of Britain.

Starmer shook off key pillars of Labour’s foreign policy: respect for developing countries, defense of the rule of law, the belief that what happens abroad has consequences for Britons at home. The latter also applies in reverse: the way Britain is governed at home will affect its reputation abroad. Starmer’s top team believes climate change is a key area where Britain can take the lead. That’s why Starmer is making sure that in his speech he makes a pledge to deliver clean energy by 2030 and that Labor has withdrawn the ban on onshore wind energy.

Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy have been on the same page all week. Lammy has been here since Monday, when he proclaimed at the Security Council, holding the UN Charter and looking at the Russian representative, that he knew imperialism when he saw it because his ancestors had been slaves. It was a passionate, personal statement announcing his arrival on the international stage. He denounced Russia as a “mafia state” hungry for a “mafia empire.” The Prime Minister was equally stern with the Council, accusing Russia of treating its citizens like “pieces of meat thrown into a grinder.”

Both think the biggest problem with Putin’s invasion is its illegality under international law. Both defended the international system and the UN Charter from violation. Starmer’s speech at the General Assembly went one step further, making a plea for Britain to return to a position of global leadership. He wants to do this by “listening a lot more, speaking a little less, offering cutting-edge British expertise and working together in the spirit of equal respect.”

Such words do not guarantee success. Speeches, no matter how empathetic, do not generate power. And that is the reality this new Prime Minister must now face.

Hollywood diplomacy

Lammy looked confused. On his left sat Benedict Cumberbatch; on his right sat the British Consulate General. Between them was theater director Sophie Hunter. On the 25thfloor of a Manhattan skyscraper, as the United Nations gathered for the General Assembly, the Foreign Secretary hosted a panel to promote Britain’s Soft Power Council. Or at least he thought so.

Hunter talked about the importance of salt marshes. These are vast areas often found near airports that, she said, the common man often mistakes for wastelands. She read about it in the National Geographicyou see. She called the author of the article and found herself on a boat somewhere staring at the “sacred” things. That is why she created an exhibition inspired by the Bible story of Lot.

Cumberbatch listened attentively. When invited to speak, he muttered stern words against the patriarchy as his audience sipped from Chapel Down and gazed at the buildings below. He said he always tries to bring women’s voices to the fore as producers and artists, as opposed to those “angry men who shout at each other or throw stones or worse.” When playing characters like Alan Turing, he realized that “it has nothing to do with me.” What were the benefits of his work? “Fame?” he chuckled, “Not so much.”

When Lammy tried to shift the focus back to soft power, Cumberbatch and Hunter shared a knowing, condescending smile. When a band started singing hits from musicals, Theresa May lingered by the door and looked bewildered. Cumberbatch slumped in the corner. Now you understand why Lammy looked confused.

For three days he tried to halt rising tensions in Lebanon. But suddenly he had to listen to Cumberbatch about his preference for art with a purpose. The foreign minister found himself in a world where celebrity and diplomacy collide – a mix that characterizes the “high-level” week of the UN General Assembly.

Justin Trudeau found time to romp with the talk show host Stephen Colbert. The Spanish Prime Minister had reportedly partied with Anne Hathaway; Matt Damon is said to be at an event with Jacinda Ardern; Prince Harry lurked behind every red velvet rope. The problems in the world were enormous, yet they felt trivial. Poverty and death became glamorous. The catwalk became more important than war and peace. The sound of artillery was drowned out by Doja cat.

Celebrities have always found themselves around the UN, drawn by the prospect that their moral brand could rub off on their own. They bring the cameras; the UN forms the background. Many support development programs, but more often a transaction takes place and both parties go their separate ways.

Billionaires don’t want to miss this either. Elon Musk saw an opportunity to cosplay as world king. The CEO of Tesla introduced Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the Atlantic Council’s annual gala dinner as “someone who is even more beautiful on the inside than on the outside.”

Who did Musk represent? The United States? The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to the question New statesman‘s requests for comment. Musk has his own foreign policy. He is currently negotiating a standoff with the Brazilian government over whether X is legal in the country. He has the power to give the Internet to anyone he wants. He sent his satellite Internet service Starlink to the Ukrainian army, but did not let them deploy it in Crimea.

In the 1980s, the Reagan administration crushed billionaire Ross Perot when he led his own diplomatic mission to Vietnam. Now the pretext that the government controls billionaires has been dropped. Musk can flirt with Meloni, while Oxfam proclaims that the world’s richest 1 percent own more wealth than the bottom 95 percent of the world’s population combined.

Amid the glitter, diplomacy plowed on: sharp words were shared in the hallways and elevators; bilateral meetings were packed away in plastic booths. In the lounge reserved for China, the North Korean delegation stood alone, holding flags. Above all, the war in the Middle East loomed large and what the American elections mean for the Ukrainian campaign against Russia. Lammy left the reception early to go to an emergency meeting of the Security Council. Of course not Cumberbatch; he was there to be seen, war or no war.

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