Keir Starmer’s plans for aid and diplomacy could help define him

DEBATES OVER the duty one person owes another tend to stir strong feelings. Take foreign aid. Those on the right of Britain’s Conservative Party see spending on the distant poor as a symptom of wastefulness and wokeism. Boris Johnson once called the aid department a “giant cashpoint in the sky”, dishing out funds without regard for domestic interests. Those on the left of the Labour Party feel just as keenly that aid is a moral imperative and that post-Brexit Britain needs to signal more clearly than ever that it is committed to the broader world. Polls suggest that Labour will form the next government. What Sir Keir Starmer, its leader, decides on foreign policy matters. His stance on foreign aid is a test of his priorities.