Keir Starmer must choose his foreign policy allies wisely

After a grueling 27-hour flight to Samoa, Keir Starmer was entitled to a few hours of R&R in the tropical surroundings of a Commonwealth summit banquet on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the heavens opened and the rain never stopped. It wasn’t the only rain on the British prime minister’s parade: the prime minister was greeted by a chorus of Caribbean leaders demanding reparations for Britain’s role in the slave trade two hundred years ago.

The no-shows were also significant: the leaders of South Africa and India snubbed the Commonwealth for the BRIC summit in the Russian city of Kazan. Dinner with Vladimir Putin – for which the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant – and Xi Xinping was considered more sympathetic or profitable. The Russian leader boasted that the gathering heralded a “new world order” to challenge the old system based on Western rules.