Prior to entering No. 10, Keir Starmer had little experience of foreign affairs. Yet in office, the subject has consumed a disproportionate amount of time, with a sixth of his premiership being spent abroad. So last night’s Lady Mayor’s Banquet speech at the Guildhall offered the Prime Minister a chance to set out his thinking. A year after his previous address , many of Starmer’s themes remained the same, as he summarised his own philosophy as ‘internationalism is patriotism.’

Yet reading Starmer’s speech, it is striking how little he seems to have been influenced by the events of the past year

Europe – so crucial to Starmer’s worldview – naturally was a staple throughout. He bemoaned how ‘Brexit broke the consensus’ that ‘Britain should be outward looking’ – a tradition ‘as British

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