Former UK diplomat Tim Cole calls for a radical reset of UK foreign policy based on honesty and respect David Lammy says the UK needs a refreshed foreign policy based on “progressive realism” (Labour’s foreign policy will be realistic about us as a nation, not nostalgic about what we used to be, 17 April). This is nowhere more true than in Africa where, in many countries, the UK is seen as untrustworthy and shortsighted, short of ideas and cash, petty and not strategic. Spending the aid budget on refugees at home, hoarding vaccines during the pandemic, not living up to commitments on climate f ..read more

Rishi Sunak has announced that UK defence spending would be boosted to 2.5% of GDP by 2030. 'Over the next six years, we’ll invest an additional £75bn in our defence. And it will be fully funded with no increase in borrowing or debt,' he said on a visit to Poland, adding that UK spending would be put on a 'war footing' UK to boost defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, Sunak says UK politics – latest updates ..read more

PM announces plan to increase spending to £87bn a year by 2030 on visit to Poland UK politics – latest updates Britain will boost its defence spending to 2.5% of national output by the end of the decade, Rishi Sunak has announced on a visit to Poland, as he warned the UK had to be equipped to meet the challenges of an increasingly dangerous world. The prime minister’s plan, under which the UK would steadily increase defence spending to £87bn a year by 2030, comes after months of pressure from Tory MPs, including the defence secretary, Grant Shapps, to increase military spending to help count ..read more

Our shabby domestic reality is a far cry from the imperial grandeur of the Foreign Office. Politicians must recognise this Deciding on what the UK’s place in the world should be has been like watching politicians spin a wheel. Then spinning it again when the option they landed on doesn’t work out. First, it was the imperial power projections of Brexit, the reassertion of Britain’s place in the world unshackled by the limitations of equal partnership with Europe. You don’t hear so much about this any more (funny that). Instead, we now find ourselves in an era chastened by the embarrassing bomba ..read more

David Redshaw is staggered by Keir Starmer’s admiration for her, Brian Hughes says her government created the illusion of an economic miracle, while Charles EL Gilman disputes her total hostility to the EU Andy Beckett’s takedown of the Thatcherite myth is timely (Margaret Thatcher set Britain’s decline in motion – so why can’t politics exorcise her ghost?, 12 April). Most remarkable is Keir Starmer’s admiration for the “entrepreneurialism” she let loose. Starmer is clearly stuck in his New Romantic era and hasn’t done his history. The biggest burst of entrepreneurship came in the pre-Thatcher ..read more

Ideas of exceptionalism and ‘laissez-faire’ policies are still driving economic myths that should be stone dead There were fateful choices in the autumn of 1931 and the months that followed whose consequences affect us today. The beliefs still current in British exceptionalism – attachment to laissez-faire economics and pursuit of the chimera of global Britain – have their roots in the choices made then, which became embedded in our culture, especially on the right. Challenging what should be stone-dead myths and reinventing a conception of what Britain can and should be demands understanding ..read more

The foreign secretary’s actions are always ‘the right thing to do’. How marvellous! Trotters up, or down? Even if you once admired Danny Dyer’s immortal summary of post-Brexit David Cameron – “He’s in Europe, in Nice, with his trotters up” – there’s a strong case for wishing he’d stayed that way. When Cameron’s trotters were up, we were at least spared the surely more distressing spectacle of his trotters blithely ascending the moral high ground. When he was in Nice he wasn’t travelling the world and, with all the authority of a man who used to press the services of Lex Greensill on his former ..read more

Labour also turns down European Commission’s proposal, which would allow young Britons to live, study and work in EU Rishi Sunak has rejected an EU offer to strike a post-Brexit deal to allow young Britons to live, study or work in the bloc for up to four years. The prime minister declined the European Commission’s surprise proposal of a youth mobility scheme for people aged between 18 and 30 on Friday, after Labour knocked back the suggestion on Thursday night – while noting it would “seek to improve the UK’s working relationship with the EU within our red lines ..read more

We’re keen to hear what people make of the proposal to resume freedom of movement between the EU and UK for young people aged between 18 and 30 The European Commission has proposed opening negotiations with the UK to allow mobility enjoyed before Brexit to millions of young people in a major concession. Under the envisaged agreement, EU and UK citizens aged between 18 and 30 would be able to stay for up to four years in the destination country, the European Commission said in a statement ..read more

New post-Brexit border checks ‘set to zero’ to avoid what Defra calls risk of serious disruption The UK government has reportedly told port health authorities it will not “turn on” health and safety checks for EU imports as new post-Brexit border controls begin this month. A presentation prepared by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) highlighted the risk of “significant disruption” if the new measures were implemented, according to the Financial Times. It made clear that the systems would not be fully ready on time ..read more