Prime minister trying to secure tournament’s future at Commonwealth summit in Samoa
Keir Starmer will try to find a host country for the 2030 Commonwealth Games this week as ministers try to shore up the tournament’s future.
The prime minister’s spokesperson said Starmer wanted to see “a successful Commonwealth Games from 2030” and would spend time at this week “talking to partners about who may be interested in taking that forward”.
Continue reading...Conference convened by French president raises $800m in humanitarian aid and $200m to strengthen Lebanese army
Emmanuel Macron has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that “civilisation is not best defended by sowing barbarism ourselves”, as a conference convened by the French president in Paris raised $200m (£154m) for Lebanon’s official military and $800m in humanitarian aid for the country.
Macron also vowed to help train 6,000 extra Lebanese official forces, and called for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers, for which he said there was no justification.
Continue reading...Rahima Mahmut, in exile in the UK, ‘disappointed’ at failure to describe Beijing’s crackdown on minority as genocide
A leading Uyghur activist has accused the Labour government of “falling behind” its allies in failing to stand up to China, after ministers backtracked on plans to push for formal recognition of the country’s treatment of the minority group as genocide.
Speaking after David Lammy’s first visit to China as UK foreign secretary, the human rights activist Rahima Mahmut, who has lived in exile in the UK since 2000, said she had hoped there would be a shift in UK policy once the party came into power, including following the US in declaring a continuing genocide in Xinjiang.
Continue reading...Andrei Kelin says by providing weapons Britain is ‘killing Russian soldiers and civilians’
Moscow’s ambassador to London has said the UK is waging a proxy war against Russia, while predicting the “end of Ukraine” as Russian invading forces make deeper advances into the country.
In an interview with the BBC, Andrei Kelin said Ukraine continued to fight but claimed “the resistance is more feeble and feeble”.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary discussed China’s treatment of Uyghurs and support of Russia as well as ‘areas of cooperation’
David Lammy pressed his Chinese counterpart on human rights concerns and China’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during talks in Beijing, the Foreign Office has said.
The foreign secretary had been under pressure to take a tough line on a range of human rights issues with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, when the pair met on Friday during Lammy’s first visit to China since taking office.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Party drops plan for formal recognition laid out last year by David Lammy, who will visit Beijing on Friday
Labour has backtracked on plans to push for formal recognition of China’s treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide in the run-up to David Lammy’s trip to the country this weekend.
The foreign secretary is expected to arrive in Beijing on Friday for high-level meetings before travelling to Shanghai on Saturday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Group of UK MPs says foreign secretary must ‘engage with China as it really is’ amid rapprochement drive
David Lammy must “engage with China as it really is under the leadership of Xi Jinping” and raise human rights concerns during his trip to the country, UK parliamentarians who have been hit with sanctions by Beijing have said.
The foreign secretary is expected to hold high-level meetings in China this week. The visit forms part of an effort by Labour to improve relations with China after they deteriorated under successive Conservative governments. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, plans to travel to the country next year and restart high-level economic dialogue.
Continue reading...Foreign Office declines to penalise two Israeli ministers as ex-foreign secretary David Cameron had planned
The UK Foreign Office has announced sanctions against seven organisations that support illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank, but held back from penalising two extremist members of the Israeli government as the former foreign secretary David Cameron had been planning.
Cameron told the BBC on Tuesday that he had intended to impose sanctions on Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and said he was concerned that the Labour government had not adopted his proposal. He said he had only held back from taking the step in the spring because he had been advised that it would be too political during the general election.
Continue reading...Sandro Gozi calls for detail from Labour administration and says ‘new phase in bilateral relationship’ is possible
Keir Starmer’s government must spell out what it wants from a reset of Britain’s relationship with the EU, the European parliament’s lead MEP on the UK has said.
In his first interview since being elected chair of the European parliament’s delegation to the EU-UK parliamentary partnership assembly earlier this month, Sandro Gozi, an Italian former European affairs minister, said there was potential for a reset with the Starmer government, which had shown “a change in attitude”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Request to postpone Tsai Ing-wen’s trip came before ‘goodwill visit’ to China by David Lammy next week
The UK Foreign Office (FCDO) asked for a visit by the former Taiwanese president to be postponed so as not to anger China ahead of a trip by David Lammy, the Guardian has learned.
Lammy is due to travel to China next week for high-level meetings in his first trip to the country as foreign secretary.
Continue reading...Ministers are unclear on what action Israel is preparing to take, which shows how far the UK is from endorsing it
The UK will not participate in or coordinate any Israeli attack on Iran, but no decisions have been taken on how to respond if Iran then decides to take further retaliatory action against Israel.
UK ministers also remain unclear on what military action Israel is preparing to take, or its timing, which shows how far the UK is from endorsing an attack on Iran, and how it would prefer a route to de-escalation.
Continue reading...Labour peer says in meantime it is essential to try to reduce damage of Brexit deal struck by Boris Johnson
Peter Mandelson has suggested the UK could start talks on rejoining the EU in 10 years’ time, much earlier than Keir Starmer believes.
Lord Mandelson told an audience in Edinburgh the “truth is that [reversing Brexit] could be a conversation which starts in 10 years’ time”, but only if EU member states were willing to consider it.
Continue reading...Downing Street indicates no change in position on Ukraine’s request to fire Storm Shadow weapons into Russia
The UK has not lifted restrictions on Ukraine using long-range missiles after Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit, Downing Street has said.
The Ukrainian president met Keir Starmer in No 10 on Thursday and reiterated his request to fire Storm Shadow missiles and other western-supplied weapons deep inside Russian territory.
Continue reading...Mark Rutte says US would risk isolation if Republican candidate decided to withdraw from military alliance
Mark Rutte, the new head of Nato, has brushed off anxieties about the possible election of Donald Trump, arguing that the US would risk isolation in “a harsh, uncompromising world” if he sought to withdraw from the military alliance.
Speaking in London on Thursday, after meeting the prime minister, Keir Starmer, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Rutte said he believed both Trump and his presidential rival, Kamala Harris, recognised the value of continuing military aid to Ukraine.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary says status quo not sustainable as Tory MPs accuse Labour of giving away key asset
David Lammy has hailed the decision to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius as a deal to save a strategically important UK-US military base, after accusations from opposition MPs that a key asset was being given away.
The government announced last week that it was going to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, ending years of bitter dispute over Britain’s last African colony, but the military base on Diego Garcia will remain under UK control.
Continue reading...Stephen Doughty’s remarks come as Argentina vows to gain ‘full sovereignty’ of Falkland Islands
The UK is “resolutely committed” to all of its overseas territories, the responsible foreign minister said, after Argentina vowed to gain “full sovereignty” of the Falkland Islands.
Stephen Doughty said on Saturday that the sovereignty of the territories is “not up for negotiation”.
Continue reading...UK arranges flight from Beirut while Germany evacuates embassy staff and others urge citizens to leave as Israel launches limited ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon
The UK has chartered a flight out of Lebanon for Britons to leave the country amid the escalating violence in the region, as governments around the world begin making contingency plans to evacuate their citizens. amid the escalating violence in the region.
The UK arranged a flight that was due to leave Beirut-Rafic Hariri international airport on Wednesday. David Lammy, the foreign secretary, described the situation in Lebanon as “volatile” and with the “potential to deteriorate quickly”.
Continue reading...Victoria Villarruel breaks ranks to claim confidence-building deal signed with UK offers only ‘crumbs’
Argentina’s vice-president has lambasted a new UK-Argentina Falkland Islands agreement, saying her nation had been offered “crumbs”.
The pact, announced last week, includes resuming flights to the islands, restarting negotiations on a humanitarian project plan, and organising a trip for relatives of fallen soldiers of the Falklands war to visit their graves.
Continue reading...France says Israel must stop strikes, as governments voice alarm over escalation and killing of Nasrallah
European foreign ministers have stepped up calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, amid concern that Israel’s killing of Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, risks seriously destabilising Lebanon and the region.
Even as Israeli defence officials continued to raise the prospect of a cross-border operation into southern Lebanon, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK voiced alarm over the latest escalation on the Israeli side.
Continue reading...Prime minister hopes to use talks with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen this week to prepare for a reset in the spring
Keir Starmer will use a meeting with the European Commission president this week to pave the way for a springtime overhaul of Britain’s Brexit deal, amid warnings that closer ties will be essential in his government’s desperate search for growth.
The prime minister will meet Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Wednesday. However, it comes with home secretary Yvette Cooper still vehemently opposed to an agreement that would allow young people to move more freely between Europe and the UK – a measure that EU diplomats regard as key to unlocking more serious talks in the spring.
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