In a foreign policy speech, Labour leader will attack David Cameron for ‘stepping away from the world’ and outline his conditions for interventions abroad

Ed Miliband will today say that the small-minded isolationism of David Cameron has led to the most substantial loss of British influence abroad in a generation.

In a foreign policy speech, the Labour leader will say Britain’s capacity to navigate global turbulence is being undermined by a short-sighted and inward-looking foreign policy. He will say: “Cameron has presided over the biggest loss of influence for our country in a generation. And that has happened because the government he led has stepped away from the world, rather than confidently towards it, sidelined in crucial international events time after time under this government, just at the moment when we needed to engage.”

The Labour leader will also set out the circumstances in which he supports foreign interventions such as against Islamic State in Iraq, saying interventions are legitimate only “if they are supported by international, regional and local players, carried out with a clearly defined strategy, as well as include a comprehensive transition and post-conflict strategy”.

The big three threats facing the world, Milband will say, are the growing number of cross-border challenges, the demise of multinational institutions, and instability in failed nation states.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest US-led air strike on Islamic State positions in Kobani, Syria, in October 2014. Photograph: Umit Bektas/Reuters

Across a welter of issues including Libya, relations with China, Russian aggression towards Ukraine and EU reform, he will argue that Cameron has left the country increasingly outside the circle of influence.

Speaking to Chatham House, the foreign policy thinkthank, Miliband will say: “It is time to reject the small-minded isolationism that has characterised this government, diminished the office of prime minister and shrunk the influence of Britain. Because this government’s approach has weakened Britain at a time when the challenges are perhaps greater and more complex than at any time since the second world war.”



The party leader will also echo some of the criticisms of postwar planning in Iraq – at a time when Labour was in power – to say that a similar lack of planning took place in Libya ahead of the UK-France-backed bombing campaign that took place during Cameron’s premiership in 2011.



Miliband has been criticised in some quarters for showing little interest in foreign policy, having undertaken relatively few overseas visits since becoming opposition leader. There was also concern over Miliband’s role in engineering a Commons vote that led to Britain not joining a planned bombing campaign designed to punish Syria’s President Assad for the alleged use of chemical weapons.

However, his decision to back the air campaign in Iraq against Isis and mount a strong defence of Britain’s role in Europe, in effect opposing a referendum, has led to a renewed interest from European capitals in what he has to say.



Miliband was a supporter of the UK intervention in Libya at the time, but will say the refugee crisis and tragic scenes this week in the Mediterranean are in part a direct result of the failure of post-conflict planning for Libya. He will say: “Since the action, the failure of post-conflict planning has become obvious. David Cameron was wrong to assume that Libya’s political culture and institutions could be left to evolve and transform on their own. What we have seen in Libya is that when tensions over power and resources began to emerge, they simply reinforced deep-seated ideological and ethnic fault lines in the country, meaning the hopes of the revolutionary uprisings quickly began to unravel.

“The tragedy is that this could have been anticipated. It should have been avoided. And Britain could have played its part in ensuring the international community stood by the people of Libya in practice rather than standing behind the unfounded hopes of potential progress only in principle.”

Elsewhere, the Labour leader received a boost from Lord Mandelson, the former European commissioner and Labour cabinet member. In a sign that some internal sceptics are coming round, he said: “I started feeling at the end of last week that something had shifted. That the plates had moved and Labour has captured a zeitgeist in this campaign, and the most striking feature of it is what’s happened to the two leaders.

“Miliband has moved forwards. He gained credibility. He’s exceeded most people’s expectations – I suppose, in a sense, mine as well.

“David Cameron, on the other hand, has moved backwards. He’s got to a position now when you wonder whether his heart’s really in this campaign any more. And that’s very important because campaigns are driven by a rhythm, a momentum, a dynamic. And that is now flowing strongly in Labour’s favour.”



