David Lammy, of Guyanese parentage, appointed U.K.’s new foreign secretary

LONDON  (Politico)— Labour MP David Lammy has been appointed as the U.K.’s new foreign secretary.

Lammy, who represents Tottenham in parliament, has shadowed the top foreign affairs brief for his party in opposition since 2021.

Britain’s new prime minister Keir Starmer made the appointment after his party won a widely-predicted landslide victory over Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives on Thursday night.

Issues Lammy will have to grapple with include the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza — the latter of which loomed large over some U.K. general election results.

Britain’s new top diplomat has said he wants to pursue a “securonomics” agenda in office that would involve balancing foreign policy objectives with economic security. Avoiding supply chain shocks would be the name of the game.

He has also spoken of similar ambitions when it comes to the U.K.’s relationship with the EU — setting out plans to negotiate a security agreement with the bloc covering areas like climate security and supply chain resilience.

An MP since 2001, Lammy previously studied at Harvard University before working as a lawyer.

He takes over from David Cameron, the former prime minister of the U.K. from 2010-2016 who came out of political retirement to do the top diplomatic job in November last year.