“I think there’s a recognition he and his team will focus on domestic politics first,” said one U.S. official, granted anonymity like others in this piece to speak candidly. “It doesn’t feel like a ‘I must jet across to D.C. immediately’ tactic is imminent.”
Senior observers — including Starmer himself — have warned that Burnham’s purported wish to focus on his domestic agenda above all else is not sustainable. “My own reflection is that you can’t divorce the international from the domestic,” Starmer said Wednesday, speaking from the NATO summit.
Burnham sought to address this head-on in an op-ed in The Times Wednesday, linking the two and pledging: “Our relationship with the U.S. will remain critical as our most important defence and security ally.” He did not expand much beyond that on the alliance with Washington, but said he wants “an even closer” relationship with Europe.
This will add to the sense that Burnham will seek a level of continuity, particularly on security matters, while seeking to emphasize alternative trade relationships and a more strident approach to asserting Britain’s self-interest to appeal to his MPs.
“Burnham can afford to find areas of strategic alignment, like leaning into the pro-business half of his pro-business socialism, and avoid picking fights he doesn’t need,” Michael Martins, a former U.S. embassy official and founding partner at Overton Advisory. “There will be time enough to set out his stall for the left wing of the Labour Party.”
Steady as she goes
One of the only known pieces of the diplomatic jigsaw so far is that Burnham intends to keep Jonathan Powell as national security adviser, a choice that has been widely greeted as signaling continuity in Downing Street’s relationship with the White House and the U.K.’s commitments on peace efforts in Ukraine and Iran.
