‘Never here Keir’: Is it right to criticise Starmer for being abroad so much?
Keir Starmer is taking heat for his repeated foreign trips - 22 in six months. Is his interest in foreign affairs fair play, or should the Prime Minister be spending more time on domestic issues?
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In brief:
- In his first six months as Prime Minister, Keir Starmer has taken 22 foreign trips totaling 31 days away from the UK, which is more than his predecessor Rishi Sunak.
- This has led to him being nicknamed "never here Keir" and criticism that he's more focused on international affairs than domestic issues.
- Despite the numerous overseas trips, there's a lack of clarity about what Starmer is achieving through these travels.
What’s the story?
Keir Starmer has been Prime Minister for six months. In that time he’s been on 22 foreign trips, with a total of 31 days away.
Of course, part of the Prime Minister’s job is to travel, but with so many trips in such a short space of time - far more trips than predecessors took - eyebrows are starting to raise.
Comparatively, Rishi Sunak visited 22 countries during his premiership which spanned one year and nine months.
His Tory rivals, the general public and reportedly even his own MPs have cottoned on that the PM is often abroad and the result is a nickname - it’s always a nickname - this time ‘never here Keir’.
“It's filtered down to the extent that it's now a joke on X,” LBC’s Political Editor Natasha Clarke tells The News Agents.
“‘Breaking news. Keir Starmer is going to be in the UK tomorrow’.
“It's become an actual meme now. So I think it is worrying people in number 10.”
But is there legitimacy in the allegation that Keir Starmer is more concerned with foreign affairs than domestic ones?
Are all of the foreign trips necessary?
Some criticism of Starmer’s globetrotting refers to the six pledges he set out in a major speech earlier this month. These involved improving living standards, policing, the NHS, housing, education and clean power - not foreign affairs.
“Where was foreign affairs on the six missions? That's meant to be his agenda for government,” Natasha says.
“I think people in Number 10 will say: That's a foundation – national security, protecting our borders.’
“I think many MPs will just say, actually, the NHS, jobs, delivering on the things you said you were going to do is [the foundation]”.
Those defending his travels would argue that under the previous government Britain had cut itself off from the rest of the world. Now, Starmer and his team are trying to reset relations in Europe.
“I don't know if I'd buy the fact that foreign relations were that bad to begin with,” Natasha says.
“I think Rishi Sunak was seen as quite a statesman on the world stage.”
LBC’s political correspondent Aggie Chambre relays a story from a senior civil servant.
“A senior civil servant had been told by Keir, I see 50% of my job as foreign and 50% as economy and growth. And I think that that is not exactly what people around him think.
“I think there are people in Number 10 who are a bit concerned about all of this foreign travel. But he obviously sees himself as this statesman. He sees this as a really important part of his job”.
What’s the News Agents’ take?
“There is actually quite a lot you can point to in different areas about what the government is doing – and there is quite a lot of activity,” Lewis observes.
What there very rarely is, is any kind of adhesive, binding narrative to tie it all together.”
“Maybe Starmer almost feels like these meetings have a purpose in and of themselves, rather than necessarily that they manifest or translate to anything, or when they do translate to something, he doesn't really express what it is”.
He compares this to Liz Truss’s short tenure in which she agreed to lots of rollover trade deals, but sold them as “amazing” and “cutting edge” to make it look like she was achieving great things.
“If you're going to go on all these trips, sell it better. Come out at the end of it and say what you've achieved… it's not exactly clear what he's getting out of these foreign trips. I think that is part of the problem,” Aggie says.
Starmer’s trips coupled with his decision to “front load”, taking a lot of difficult decisions early on, has caused problems for some of his own MPs, she adds.
“They're trying to do loads and loads of things. And actually that is part of what has been difficult for people.
“You have all these new MPs saying,’ Oh, well, you know, I'm having a difficult time, and Keir Starmer is not even in the country’”.
Natasha agrees, adding; “Labour MPs repeatedly are saying to me, Keir Starmer needs to be in the UK more next year.”