Partners for progress? A Lib Dem approach to foreign policy

Calum Miller MP reflects on UK foreign policy challenges and outlines the Liberal Democrat’s approach to facing them.

Three upheavals in the last 18 years have shaken the UK. The global financial crisis, Brexit and Covid-19 have created social, economic and political fissures that have shaken British confidence about our place in the world.

The swashbuckling promises of the Brexiteers have not delivered a new, global Britain. With disruptions to trade flows, the offshoring of major corporate HQs to continental Europe and anaemic growth levels, Britain has lost ground on its economic competitors. The apparent disinterest of Conservative Prime Ministers in following domestic or international law caused us to lose influence and standing with international partners.

The UK’s domestic turbulence has coincided with major disruption to world politics. The rise of China is a direct economic, military and ideational challenge to the existing powers. It has allied itself with Russia in its invasion of Ukraine while also working to undermine democratic freedoms and to win control of international organisations from liberal economies.

Increasingly, we see three major blocs – the US, China and the EU – bestriding the global economy and competing for technological and regulatory dominance. Under the Trump Presidency, the US has turned inwards, adopting major tariffs and withdrawing from international military engagement. Yet, globally, arms proliferation has gathered pace as countries perceive higher insecurity.

Cross-border challenges proliferate. The climate emergency is upon us. Significant demographic change is rebalancing global populations and storing up migratory pressures. The rapid development of artificial intelligence and quantum computing have the power to transform our societies.

Amid all of this, the UK has been too often absent from the field of play. Under governments focused on party management not the national interest, we have lost our way in the world.

Liberal Democrats believe that there is a path back to a better future.

Our economy is stronger and our security greater when we work with other nations. As an open economy, the UK is a beneficiary when all nations work together and abide by shared rules. Over the last century – from Bretton Woods to the Single European Market – British officials were the author of many of those rules. Over centuries, we have forged successful alliances that have protected our island nation. Faced by the concerted threat of authoritarian states, we need to renew our commitment to collective security.

We should start with a new commitment to work more closely with the EU. This makes sense economically: even post-Brexit, the EU remains clearly the UK’s largest trading partner. Liberal Democrats want to see the negotiation of a new customs union between the EU and UK, which estimates suggest could add more than £25 billion a year to the British Exchequer.

It also makes sense for security: facing a resurgent Russia, the UK’s interests are most closely aligned with those of European partners. This is all the more important as President Trump withdraws reliable US support for our continental security. In short, geography matters and the UK is a European nation.

Authoritarian states have shown they are happy to operate within the borders of the UK. Russia has invaded Ukraine and menaces European states. The UK needs to increase its defence expenditure to protect our nation in dangerous times. Liberal Democrats would raise it to 2.5% of GDP immediately (funded by a 10% Digital Services Tax, not a cut to ODA) and develop a cross-party plan to get to 3% by 2030.

The UK should recommit wholeheartedly to multilateralism. That means working to support the major international institutions while pressing them to reform operations and governance so they are more fit to build consensus among members. It also means being willing to be bound by international law. Not because, as some would have it, we are rule-takers. But because – as joint rule-makers – we believe that our citizens and companies benefit when other countries also play by the rules.

Alongside this, the UK must take seriously the soft power it held in global affairs and rekindle it. That means adequate funding for British institutions that command respect and engagement from other countries: the BBC World Service and British Council. It also means sustaining a diplomatic footprint and capabilities to support British interests across the globe. In too many places, where the UK has exited, our economic and security rivals have seized the opportunity.

The UK needs to reengage confidently with the world’s emerging powers. We should believe in our values and our value to other countries. Given their share of the world economy, we need to have a relationship with China. They also want a relationship with us, but it must not be a policy of continuous accommodation, as it has been under Labour so far. We should be clear that repeated human rights abuses of Hong Kongers and efforts to exercise force against political opponents in the UK are not acceptable and have consequences. We should be willing to hold back cooperation in trade and investment unless Beijing moderates its actions, ideally in coordination with trade partners in the EU and US.

That is where we want to get to. That is where we can get to. It’s a vision of a self-confident, outward-looking, dynamic nation. It rests on a commitment to partnership and leadership. It will take resolve and determination to get there – but we can.

By Calum Miller MP, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs