It took Rishi to bring realism to Britain’s self-image

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain has mothballed his predecessors’ projects, large and small, from Liz Truss’ trickle-down tax cuts to Boris Johnson’s revamped royal yacht. But one of Sunak’s most symbolic changes since taking over as prime minister five months ago has received less attention: retiring the slogan “Global Britain.”

No longer does the phrase, a swashbuckling relic of Britain’s debate over its post-Brexit role, feature in speeches by cabinet ministers or in the government’s updated military and foreign policy blueprint released last Monday.

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In its place, Sunak has hashed out workmanlike deals on trade and immigration with Britain’s nearest neighbors — France and the rest of the European Union. In the process, analysts and diplomats said, he has begun, for the first time since Britain’s departure from the European Union, to chart a realistic role on the global stage.

Global Britain, as propounded by Johnson, was meant to evoke a Britain, unshackled from Brussels, that could be agile and opportunistic, a lightly regulated, free-trading powerhouse. In practice, it came to symbolize a country with far-fetched ambitions and, under Johnson, a habit of squabbling with its neighbors.

Sunak has changed all of that, with a pragmatic approach that, to some extent, reflects his button-down, technocratic style. (In domestic policy, he has also shunned the ideological experimentation of Truss and the bombastic politics of Johnson in favour of a more methodical approach to Britain’s deep-rooted economic problems.) But a leader’s style matters, and on the world stage Sunak’s no-bombast approach is paying eye-catching dividends.

In the past few weeks, he has struck a deal with Brussels on trade in Northern Ireland, eased years of Brexit-related tensions with France, inaugurated the next phase of a submarine alliance with Australia and the United States and announced 11 billion pounds in increased military spending over the next five years, cementing Britain’s role as a leading supplier of weapons to Ukraine.

“It’s too early to say whether Sunak has found a role for post-Brexit Britain,” said Peter Westmacott, who served as Britain’s ambassador to France and to the US. “But he has banished the much-ridiculed ‘Global Britain’ Johnsonian slogan, preferring to under-promise and over-deliver. He’s also moved fast to fix some of the obstacles to better relations with our partners.”

There are lingering obstacles to a new British role, not least the right flank of Sunak’s Conservative Party, which remains suspicious of the EU and could yet trip up his trade deal on Northern Ireland. Human rights experts have also condemned the government’s new plan to prevent asylum-seekers from crossing the English Channel, saying that it will violate international law.

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Sunak has set off on a grand fence-mending tour. Unlike Johnson, who once sparred with President Emmanuel Macron of France over sausages, Sunak called Macron “mon ami” after they met in Paris this month and agreed to work together to try to stem the migrant crossings.

When Sunak and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the deal on new trade rules for Northern Ireland, known as the Windsor Framework, she referred to him as “dear Rishi.” It was a stark contrast to the stilted encounters she once had with Johnson.

President Joe Biden has warmed up to Sunak, too. During Sunak’s visit to San Diego to inaugurate the submarine alliance, Biden noted that Sunak was a Stanford University graduate and owned a house up the coast. Sunak’s Santa Monica residence is reminder that he is wealthy and held a US green card while he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, issues that dogged him when he ran unsuccessfully for Conservative Party leader.

The White House, in its statement, did not single out Sunak’s role in striking the Northern Ireland deal with Brussels. Sunak told Biden in November, at their first face-to-face meeting as leaders, that he hoped to settle the issue in time for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in April.

British officials said the wording of the White House statement was helpful, because name-checking Sunak could have caused him headaches in Northern Ireland’s tricky political landscape, where Biden’s endorsement is a mixed blessing. Many there identify the presidentas sympathetic to those in the region who want unification with the Republic of Ireland.

Regardless, the deal opened the door for Biden to visit Belfast, Northern Ireland’s capital, next month to commemorate a quarter century since the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence known as the Troubles.

The submarine pact is a reminder that Britain remains the most important military power in Nato after the US.

In addition, the government’s budget, announced Wednesday by Sunak’s chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, pledges to raise Britain’s military spending to 2.5 per cent of economic output, though no date was given for reaching that target. The added money will go to build new nuclear submarines and warplanes, and to replenish stocks depleted by the pipeline of weapons sent to Ukraine.

“The past week tells us something important about the way Sunak sees the world, and the way in which he wants the world to see the UK,” said Sophia Gaston, the head of foreign policy at Policy Exchange, a London-based think tank. “We are connected, open, ambitious, but pragmatic about delivering on our promises.”

NYT