What does a Labour victory mean for British foreign policy?

SIR KEIR STARMER enjoyed many happy coincidences on his way to becoming British prime minister on July 5. The diplomatic journal brought him two more. On July 9, Sir Keir and David Lammy, the new foreign secretary, went to a summit in Washington, Direct currentmean FOR THIS75th anniversary. And on 18 July, just two weeks after taking office, Sir Keir will host a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), a loose gathering of states in and around the European Union, at Blenheim Palace, the vast baroque building where Winston Churchill was born.

These two events and EPC in particular, it will give the new Labour government an immediate stage to signal where British foreign policy will remain the same and where it will change. They will also reinforce the biggest change of all, the country’s reputation. Almost overnight, the exaggerated image of Britain as a chaotic clown – true under Boris Johnson, less so under Rishi Sunak – was transformed into an idealised image of a stable government led by a serious-minded centrist.