Starmer has closed the book on Tory Neoconservatism
He is the first realist PM
This week the book was closed on the manic incoherent foreign policy which began with the Brexit referendum in 2016. Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to lift some sanctions on Russian oil and gas when great British motorists are being pounded at the pumps is shocking for those of us accustomed to successive British governments sacrificing the wellbeing of middle and lower class people for various foreign policy commitments abroad.
Most interestingly, with Starmer it fits a pattern. Starmer’s refusal to join in with the American strikes on Iran was a clear break with the past; but a more important aspect of Starmer’s foreign policy realism has been his approach to China.
Starmer has ‘reset’ relations with China (signing amongst other things a deal which enables all British citizens to visit the end of the Silk road) but he has also implicitly allowed Chinese electric vehicles to flood our market (Jaecoos have been in the top three selling cars in Britain most months this year) which has happily driven down costs for the sort of person who wants to experience a luxury SUV on a modest budget. Both the EU and the US have been imposing tariffs and restrictions on Chinese EVs since 2024, our Brexit enabled refusal to do so bears all the savvy globalism which was promised in the utopia of Singapore-on-Thames.