Lisa Nandy has said the government’s “go it alone” approach left Britain unable to to prepare for the coronavirus crisis as she urged Boris Johnson to spearhead international cooperation to create and distribute a vaccine.
In her first newspaper interview since becoming shadow foreign secretary, the former Labour leadership candidate said the aftermath of the pandemic should mark a “serious reckoning” about Britain’s role in the world. She criticised the “myth of exceptionalism”, which she said was part of the country’s self-image.
“Britain was in that position, where our government had increasingly taken an isolationist route, and championed the idea of a small island nation that would go it alone, and punch above its weight, without stopping to think about how we were going to exert power and influence in the world, particularly with China and the US taking the approach that they’ve taken,” Nandy said.
“What we’ve learned in this pandemic is that that global Britain approach that was supposed to put Britain first, has actually ended up putting us last – and that in the future we’re going to have a serious reckoning about how Britain does form alliances across the world, that enable us to not just survive future pandemics and global shocks, but actually to thrive during some very very difficult times.”
She welcomed that fact that Britain co-hosted a pledging conference with the EU last week, to raise funding for vaccine development, and described the race to discover one as “the most urgent shared endeavour of our lifetimes”.
But she pointed out that the US was not involved in the conference – and a rival event was held on the same day, in which the Indian government, among others, was involved.
“Unless we get a global response, we’ll see countries scrabbling for a vaccine in competition with one another. It means that the development of that vaccine will undoubtedly be slower, and lives will be lost as a consequence,” she said.
“It also leaves the UK in a particularly vulnerable position, because we don’t have the manufacturing capacity here. We’ll be reliant on other countries, many of which weren’t present in those discussions on Monday. So we need a global agreement, not just about developing a vaccine, but then about manufacturing, and then about equitable access.”
She urged Britain to do more to facilitate a global response.
“There are a series of crunch moments coming up – key summits around the world – where it will be determined whether we can forge a global response, whether we can persuade drug companies to pull patents, for example, whether we can get an agreement about what an equitable distribution of the vaccine would look like.
“We’ve got a government that has made much of our special relationship with the United States, we need to be reaching across the Atlantic and ensuring that America comes to the table, and that we get a genuine global response to the crisis.”
She added: “Unless we deal with this now, we’re going to find, just like with PPE, with testing, with the furlough scheme, with all of the issues that we’ve had to confront as a country, that we’re not prepared, and that we’re behind the curve.”
Starmer’s frontbench have been cautious in their criticism of the government’s handling of the pandemic, believing the national mood favoured a constructive approach.
But shadow ministers have stepped up their attacks in recent days, with Starmer using an article in the Daily Telegraph on Friday to accuse Johnson of failing to protect veterans in care homes.
Nandy said Britain was one of those countries where a “myth of exceptionalism” had taken hold, leading to “an enormous divergence” in the way the outbreak has been tackled, creating problems for citizens and businesses.
“Even this week, with the newly launched app on the Isle of Wight, there’s been a discussion in government about whether they now need to change the technology they’re using around that app, to bring them in line with other countries,” she said. “If we don’t start to get this right, and to see the world pulling together, we will continue to see those problems and those barriers.”
The 40-year-old’s appointment was one of the surprises in the radical reshuffle carried out by Keir Starmer after he won the Labour leadership last month.
She had impressed many party members with assured media performances during her own campaign for the leadership, but was better known for championing the needs of towns like her Wigan constituency than for her views on foreign policy.
Nandy said her “mission” in the post would be to “connect back together what is happening to people in places like Wigan, and what is happening at that multilateral level - and why those two things might work in tandem and why they matter so much”.
She highlighted what she sees as a “crisis of legitimacy” for globalisation, which fed the rise of populist leaders, including Donald Trump, and the Brexit vote in 2016.
“One of the things that is foremost in my mind is that the globalisation model that we had has become completely unsustainable in large parts of the world. And that is as true here in Britain as it is for example in the USA,” she said.
Nandy said Starmer’s Labour would continue to be an internationalist party. “It is working-class people, and the poorest, in countries all over the world including Britain, who are bearing the brunt of this. So if we don’t work together to resolve it, that will continue, and we can’t allow that to happen,” she said.
“We can already see the nationalist, populist forces line up, to say that the world must pull apart in response to this. And we have to say that we’re part of that global response - and Labour is an alternative pole on the UK landscape, that puts internationalism very firmly back at the heart of what constitutes a progressive agenda for Britain.”
Nandy also suggested Britain be more cautious in its relations with China. Aspects of China’s behaviour, she said, “should give us cause for concern, and they should make us much more vigilant.” But she added: “There is no global problem that you can solve without China.”
A government spokesperson said: “From the start of the crisis the UK has played a leading role in tackling the spread of coronavirus and driving the world’s response to it. We are uniquely placed to do so as a member of the G7, G20, Nato, Commonwealth and the UNSC, and as a major donor to the global health system.
“The UK is the biggest contributor to the international body leading the search for a coronavirus vaccine, and to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. We are also hosting the virtual Global Vaccine Summit on 4 June. The UK has now pledged £744m in aid to support global efforts to combat the outbreak.”
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