Starmer Outlines Pragmatic UK Foreign Policy in Speech

In a major foreign policy address at the Lady Mayor's Banquet in London's Guildhall on Monday evening, Prime Minister Keir Starmer outlined a pragmatic approach to global relations, emphasizing "sober realism" in dealings with China while criticizing the unfulfilled promises of Brexit and rejecting calls to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.

Starmer, speaking to an audience of business leaders and dignitaries, described China as "a nation of immense scale, ambition and ingenuity" and a "defining force in technology, trade and global governance." He acknowledged that it also poses national security threats to the United Kingdom, insisting that protecting security remains "nonnegotiable, our first duty." The prime minister rejected past fluctuations in UK-China relations, from the "golden age" under former Prime Minister David Cameron to a subsequent "ice age," calling for a balanced strategy grounded in "strength, clarity and sober realism." He warned that avoiding engagement with the world's second-largest economy would amount to a "dereliction of duty," while stressing that security would not be traded for economic access.