Labour’s foreign policy will be realistic about us as a nation, not nostalgic about what we used to be | David Lammy

Our international relations have been undermined by the reckless and gaffe-prone diplomacy of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak and their damaging indifference to the rule of law.

It starts by taking the best from two of Labour’s great former foreign secretaries: the realism of Ernest Bevin, who, as part of Clement Attlee’s postwar Labour government helped create Nato and Britain’s place within it, alongside the independent nuclear deterrent; and the progressivism of Robin Cook, whose “ethical dimension” brought climate action and human rights into the diplomatic mainstream.

Instead of using realism for transactional purposes and the accumulation of power, we want to use it in the service of progressive goals: countering climate change, defending democracy, advancing economic growth and tackling inequality – abroad as well as at home.

In the face of conflict in the Middle East, in the short term, we urgently need an immediate ceasefire complied with by both sides, the immediate return of all the hostages cruelly held by Hamas terrorists, and for Israel to lift the unacceptable restrictions on aid flows to enable a massive surge of supplies into Gaza.

But in the medium term, progressive realism means seeking the same things for Ukraine, Israel and Palestine: for each to be a sovereign, secure, internationally recognised state, at peace with its neighbours.

We must recognise that partnerships with the so-called global south work better than lectures and that hypocrisy – be that about sharing Covid vaccines or obeying international law – is corrosive to foreign policy.