David Miliband has been very coy about his potential appointment by Andy Burnham as Foreign Secretary. The Miliband coming back together…
Guido has cobbled together some of his positions. He hasn’t been silent as of late despite heading the International Rescue Committee on a £1 million salary…
Europe and Brexit:
- Called for a “national consensus” on Britain’s relationship with the EU, said the UK needs a much deeper EU reset than the government’s current approach.
- Of Starmer’s reset: “‘I think that the ambition of a reset that was set by the Starmer administration was right, but the dosage was too low.”
- Rejoining EU is acceptable as a “long-term goal.”
- 2026: said Brexit was “sabotage” and had made UK £30 billion a year worse off.
Refugees and migration:
- 2017 book Rescue argues that helping refugees protects Western values and interests; its published summary says “if we fail refugees, then we betray our own history, values, and interests.”
- 2021: said Europe should collectively accommodate 250,000 refugees annually by 2025.
- Also said the UK then took about seven refugees per constituency and would not be “overrun” even if that rose to 35. Quintupling…
- IRC led by Miliband said the UK should not send refugees away.
- 2019: Report signed by Miliband promoted new financing tools for refugees, including refugee catastrophe bonds, humanitarian blended bonds, and development impact bonds.
Trump:
- 2019: “Donald Trump is manufacturing a crisis at the US-Mexico border to justify his hardline immigration plans while failing to tackle the real crisis in Central America that is the root of the problem, the head of one of the world’s largest humanitarian aid groups has said.”
- 2026: “Because of Trump, the old idea of ‘the west’ is over. Our geography is with Europe and we’re going to have to improve with the EU.”
Foreign aid:
- 2025: criticised UK aid cuts from 0.5% to 0.3% of GNI as a “blow to Britain’s reputation” and urged that remaining aid be spent overseas rather than on asylum accommodation in Britain.
Here we go…
