It must be bring your political father figure to work week in Westminster, because hard on the heels of Rishi Sunak restarting David Cameron’s government career, i has revealed that Tony Blair has been helping out Keir Starmer with contacts in the Middle East.
On the face of it, the move by the Labour leader is sensible. While everyone in the region and the international community would want the current conflict between Israel and Hamas to be over as quickly as possible, it is likely that it could still be raging by the time – if the Prime Minister goes for a May 2024 election or even earlier – Sir Keir enters Downing Street.
In that scenario, he will be bringing with him a vastly inexperienced cabinet. This is not exactly the fault of a party that will have been out of office for 14 years.
But notwithstanding the possibility that the Labour leader holds a further Shadow Cabinet reshuffle before the next election, just three members of Sir Keir’s current top team have cabinet experience.
In recruiting Sir Tony’s help as a point man in the Middle East, the Labour leader can add foreign policy years to his government by drawing on his predecessor’s depth of knowledge on Israel and Gaza.
As prime minister, Sir Tony paid several visits to the Middle East, including the occupied West Bank, and has met current Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on multiple occasions. After leaving Downing Street in 2007, he served as the international community’s envoy to the Middle East until 2015, and still has an office in Tel Aviv.
During that time, Sir Tony was a key international player in the peace process, although hopes for a two-state solution faded after Hamas came to power in Gaza in 2007 and the Israeli government, under Netanyahu, oversaw the expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank.
As a result, the former prime minister’s involvement in the foreign policy of what is likely to be the next UK government will be welcomed in Israel. Sir Tony also has extensive contacts in the wider region, including the Gulf states who are essential to long-term future stability in the region.
Sir Tony’s role will be more controversial back in the UK, given his record on foreign affairs is overshadowed by his decision to go to war in Iraq. Yet this was more than 20 years ago, and it is unlikely to make a difference to people considering whether to vote Labour at the next election.
His presence as an informal adviser may, however, feed a sense of anger among Labour supporters who want Sir Keir to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The Labour leader’s failure to do so led to a rebellion of nearly a third of his MPs this week.
Yet Sir Keir no doubt thinks the move is worth the risk. Until this current crisis, the UK government’s engagement in the Middle East has been negligible since 2010, and the man likely to be the next prime minister should be taking this aspect of foreign policy seriously.
