Labour warned ‘ethical foreign policy’ inevitably sparks charge of ‘hypocrisy’

Labour risks “accusations of hypocrisy” if it claims to be pursuing an “ethical foreign policy”, a leading academic has warned, after David Lammy pledged that the party’s foreign policy would be influenced by former Labour Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

Cook – who served as Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001 – said at the beginning of his term in office that Labour’s foreign policy “must have an ethical dimension and must support the demands of other peoples for the democratic rights on which we insist for ourselves”.

Speaking in the latest episode of The Power Test podcast this week, academic and author on foreign policy and international relations Lawrence Freedman acknowledged that ethics are “important” but argued that foreign policy is “often about competing moralities”.

‘You have to deal with Saudi Arabia’

Freedman told listeners: “The basic problem with an ethical foreign policy is that you have to deal with countries that have practices you don’t like and it inevitably leads to accusations of hypocrisy.

“So take Saudi Arabia. It’s a country that’s really important to the international economy, to the energy markets and to stability in the Middle East.

“Yet it’s hard to cheer on its domestic policies and human rights issues. But you have to deal with it. I mean there’s no way of saying we refuse to deal with you because we don’t like the way you run your country.”

In a major speech at the Fabian Society conference in January, Lammy set out his vision for a foreign policy underpinned by “progressive realism” and said Labour’s approach would “combine the best of two great Labour traditions, the commitment to realism of Ernest Bevin… and the commitment to progress of Robin Cook”.

Lammy also wrote in a long essay in Foreign Affairs this month that democracies must “tap into the tradition” of Cook.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary added: “Cook’s vision of adding more ethics to foreign policy at times snagged on the limits of idealism, particularly when it came to hard choices about arms exports. But these limits do not mean idealism has no place in foreign policy… Governments… do not have to choose between values and interests.”

Labour could see ‘enormous pressure to take hard line’ on Israel

Elsewhere in the interview with hosts Ayesha Hazarika and his son Sam on The Power Test, Freedman argued that a Labour government would be “under enormous pressure to take a hard line on and put pressure on Israel” over the situation in Gaza.

“[Foreign Secretary David] Cameron’s been doing and he’s been quite blunt in some of his statements. [Keir] Starmer might go further than that, but that’s the direction of western policy,” he told the podcast.

He also argued “there isn’t a lot of difference” between Labour and the Tories on defence and foreign policy, which he claimed is “partly because Starmer was keen to distinguish himself from [Jeremy] Corbyn” but also because “what Russia has done in Ukraine is pretty clear, and there was never any question that it had to be resisted”.

The interview in the latest episode of The Power Test, which describes itself as the “weekly podcast for those of us crying out for a better Britain”, is out today.

Read our coverage of the 2024 local elections here.

If you have anything to share that we should be looking into or publishing about this or any other topic involving Labour, on record or strictly anonymously, contact us at mail@labourlist.org. 

Sign up to LabourList’s morning email for a briefing everything Labour, every weekday morning. 

If you can help sustain our work too through a monthly donation, become one of our supporters here.

And if you or your organisation might be interested in partnering with us on sponsored events or content, email mail@labourlist.org.