Morning Call: Starmer’s address to the world
Plus, why is Benedict Cumberbatch at the UN General Assembly?
Good morning from New York. Freddie here. This week, Keir Starmer was whisked from Labour’s conference in Liverpool to Turtle Bay, New York, to address the UN General Assembly. He and his Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, encountered a bizarre jamboree. I’ve got two reports from inside the UN for you today. Read them below.
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Internationalism is now a defining feature – and promise – of Labour’s government. At the General Assembly yesterday, Keir Starmer delivered a clear and unambiguous message: Britain is ready to work as an equal partner with other countries to deal with global warming, war and the threat to the rule of international law. He was there to combat the “fatalism” he fears now grips the international community.
He offered a hopeful, but apologetic message. “I think the international system can be better. We need it to be better,” he said. “[We must move on] from the paternalism of the past towards [the] partnership for the future.” Britain’s paternalism, that is. You got the sense he was more comfortable giving a speech at the United Nations than at the Labour conference. This is a man steeped in international law. He still remembers reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a student at university. “It had a profound impact on me,” he told the sparse audience in the drab, space-ship-like General Assembly hall. Let us not forget that Starmer wrote an 883-page book on EU human rights law.
The UN General Assembly’s “high-level” week dominates the diplomatic calendar. Each countries’ leader delivers a speech. Starmer spoke after the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and before Nepal’s KP Sharma Oli. (Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray, and several other No 10 aides, watched from the sidelines beside the Nepalese delegation.) Britain’s permanent seat on the Security Council means the UN is one last institution where its voice matters. This was an opportunity for this fresh, unknown Prime Minister to reset other countries’ perception of the UK.
Starmer reeled off the key planks of Labour’s foreign policy: respect for the developing world, a defence of the rule of law, a belief that what happens abroad affects Britons at home. The latter also applies in reverse: the way Britain is governed at home will impact its reputation abroad. Starmer’s top team think climate change is a key area for Britain to take the lead, hence Starmer making sure to slip into his speech a recommitment to delivering clean energy by 2030 and that Labour has revoked the onshore wind ban.
Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy have been in sync all week. Lammy has been here since Monday, when he proclaimed at the Security Council, wielding the UN Charter in his hand and locking eyes with the Russian representative, that he knew imperialism when he saw it because his ancestors had been slaves. It was a passionate, personal declaration which announced his arrival on the international stage. He lambasted Russia as a “mafia state” which was hungry for a “mafia empire”. The Prime Minister was equally severe at the Council, accusing Russia of treating its citizens like “bits of meat to fling into the grinder”.
Both think the main 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 took this a step further: he was making a pitch for Britain to return to a position of global leadership. He wants to do that by “listening a lot more, speaking a bit less, offering game-changing British expertise and working together in the spirit of equal respect”.
Such words don’t guarantee success. Speeches, however empathetic, don’t magic up power. And that’s the reality this new Prime Minister must now confront.
Hollywood diplomacy
Lammy looked confused. To his left sat Benedict Cumberbatch; to his right sat Britain’s consulate general. Between them was the theatre director Sophie Hunter. On the 25th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper, as the United Nations gathered for the General Assembly, the Foreign Secretary was hosting a panel to promote the UK’s Soft Power Council. Or so he thought.
Hunter was talking about the importance of salt marshes. These are expanses often found near airports which, she said, the common man often confuses with wastelands. She read about it in the National Geographic, you see. She called up the article’s author and found herself on a boat somewhere gazing at the “sacred” things. Which was why she created an exhibition inspired by the biblical story of Lot.
Cumberbatch listened attentively. When invited to speak, he muttered stern words against the patriarchy, as his audience sipped Chapel Down and gazed upon the buildings below. He said he always tries to foreground women voices as producers and artists, as opposed to those “angry men shouting at each other or throwing rocks, or worse”. When playing characters such as Alan Turing he would realise that “it’s nothing to do with me.” What were the benefits of his job? “Fame?” he chuckled, “Not so much.”
When Lammy tried to shift the focus back to soft power, Cumberbatch and Hunter shared a knowing, condescendingly indulgent smile. As a band began singing hits from musicals, Theresa May loitered by the door, looking mystified. Cumberbatch slouched into the corner. Now you understand why Lammy looked confused.
For three days, he had been trying to stop the increasing tensions in Lebanon. But suddenly, he had to listen to Cumberbatch carp on about his preference for art with a purpose. The Foreign Secretary was thrust into the world where celebrity and diplomacy collide – a mix which defines the UN General Assembly’s “high-level” week.
Justin Trudeau found time to cavort with talk-show host Stephen Colbert. The Spanish prime minister reportedly partied with Anne Hathaway; Matt Damon was due at an event with Jacinda Ardern; Prince Harry lurked behind every red velvet rope. The world’s problems were mammoth, and 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 hovered around the UN, attracted to the prospect that its moral brand could rub off onto their own. They bring the cameras; the UN provides the backdrop. Many lend their backing to development programmes, but, more often, a transaction occurs and both parties go their separate ways.
Billionaires don’t want to miss out, either. Elon Musk spied an opportunity to cosplay as world king. The Tesla CEO 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 she is on the outside.”
Who was Musk representing? The United States? The State Department did not reply to the New Statesman’s requests for comment. Musk has his own foreign policy. He is currently negotiating a stand-off with the Brazilian government over whether X is legal in the country. He has the power to bestow the internet on whomever he likes. He sent his satellite internet service Starlink to the Ukrainian army, but wouldn’t let them deploy it in Crimea.
In the 1980s the Reagan administration slapped down the billionaire Ross Perot when he led his own diplomatic mission to Vietnam. Now, the pretence that the government controls billionaires has been dropped. Musk can flirt with Meloni, while Oxfam announces that the world’s richest 1 per cent owns more wealth than the bottom 95 percent of the world's population put together.
Amid the glitter, diplomacy ploughed on: sharp words were shared in the corridors and elevators; bilateral meetings were snatched in plastic cubicles. In the lounge reserved for China, the North Korean delegation stood alone, flags in hand. Looming over it all was war in the Middle East and what the US election means for Ukraine’s campaign against Russia. Lammy left the reception early to go to an emergency session of the Security Council. Cumberbatch didn’t, of course – he was there to be seen, war or no war.
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Great to hear from you, Freddie - you've been missed! Interesting insights, both diplomatic and artistic :)