Labour could post more diplomats to India to boost trade, says David Lammy
Britain could post more diplomats to India if Keir Starmer becomes Prime Minister.
Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy will tell trade experts that forging new ties and bolstering existing links will be key to his “economic diplomacy” plan for power.
Speaking to the Trade Unlocked conference in Birmingham, he is due to say: “The next Labour Government will set our world-class network of diplomats a priority task - launching a new economic diplomacy for the modern era, helping to create the conditions for growth, navigating this new geopolitical and geoeconomic context, driving forward the energy transition, building partnerships and local capacity, seizing the opportunity for Britain to have the highest sustained growth in the G7.”
Mr Lammy will commit the next Labour Foreign Office to "perform a strategic assessment of where our diplomats are currently posted to deepen our diplomatic ties with countries essential to the supply chains and economies of the industries of the future, including looking at Britain’s diplomatic footprint in the fastest-growing economies like India where the number of diplomats has been cut,” said Labour.
Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy will talk about "economic diplomacy" (PA)The party is expected to pledge to boost the number of envoys posted abroad tasked with promoting “Labour’s core mission of driving sustainable growth and turning the UK into a clean energy superpower”.
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Mr Lammy is also set to launch a fierce defence of his plan to beef-up the UK’s economic links with Brussels.
“Reconnecting Britain must start by reconnecting with our European neighbour because the EU are our biggest trading partners and our allies as we face war on our continent,” he will tell the conference, organised by the Best for Britain campaign group.
“If you do not think Britain’s relationship with Europe is of fundamental importance to our future, you are living in a fantasy.”
Mr Lammy’s Shadow Cabinet colleague Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Shadow International Trade Secretary, is also due to address the summit this morning.
Shadow International Trade Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds addresses the conference on Tuesday morning (Getty Images)Organisers said the conference, exclusively revealed by the Mirror in April, “industry leaders, small businesses and champions will unite to wrestle with the monumental challenges staring British businesses in the face, and discuss the government reforms and support they desperately need”.
Organising committee chairman Jürgen Maier, a former chief executive of mobile phone giant Siemens, said: “The next general election presents a chance to influence election manifestos and set a course to reverse economic stagnation with sustained economic growth.
“We simply cannot afford another decade of lost growth which could relegate the UK to being a second rate economy.
“UK business is much better than that and this is a conference to influence, learn, innovate and trade more to raise economic output, productivity and living standards.”
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