Once again, David Lammy finds himself under scrutiny. During a session in the Commons on Monday, the Foreign Secretary celebrated the downfall of Bashar al-Assad. Lammy had a different moniker for him – ‘the rat of Damascus’. He did not mince words, branding the ousted leader as ‘a criminal’ who had deployed chemical weapons against the Syrian population, with the blood of countless innocent people on his hands.
The level of outrage expressed by Lammy caught many off guard, especially those who remembered a contrasting stance taken by him in 2013. When given the chance to take action against Assad following a horrific chemical attack, Lammy opted to vote against military intervention, criticizing then Prime Minister David Cameron for lacking a clear vision of the desired outcome and exit strategy.
Criticism of Lammy’s speech was swift and sharp, with many labeling it as ‘bombastic’, ‘overacted’, and difficult to digest. It is evident that the Foreign Secretary relishes theatrical grandstanding on political stages.
It’s equally true that he has been on something of a political journey. But it’s not quite the journey people imagine.
The basic image of David Lammy is of a Lefty agitator who got lucky. A radical race and social justice campaigner who Keir Starmer needed to balance his ticket, he basically stumbled into the plumb job of Foreign Secretary through a combination of grift and good fortune.
But Lammy is no grifter. When he was first elected in 2000, replacing Bernie Grant as MP for Tottenham, he was one of parliament’s rising stars: the youngest sitting MP, the first black Briton to attend the Harvard Law School and a former attorney of the prestigious California law firm Howard Rice.
Nor is he an identikit North London social justice warrior. Upon his election, people immediately expected him to take up Grant’s mantle crusading against racial injustice and what were lazily bundled together as ‘black issues’. Lammy patiently explained that while these were important subjects, his preferred focus was education and the economy. ‘I’m not a black MP, I’m an MP who just happens to be black,’ he told political allies at the time.
All of which quickly brought him to the attention of the Blairites. The official line was that Downing Street was impressed by his CV. But in reality Blair felt the New Labour project was a little too white, and wanted a black outrider to round out his vision of a New Britain. So Lammy was fastracked to a job as junior health minister.
When he was first elected in 2000, replacing Bernie Grant as MP for Tottenham, David Lammy was one of parliament’s rising stars
Horribly exposed at a car-crash committee hearing, Lammy found himself rapidly discarded by Blair and his inner circle
And he promptly bombed. Horribly exposed at a car-crash committee hearing, he found himself rapidly discarded by Blair and his inner circle. He was shuffled off to a junior constitutional affairs brief, and told to keep his head down. Reporters who had been briefed he would be Britain’s first non-white prime minister were told to keep an eye on Keith Vaz instead.
But Lammy continued to play the Westminster game. He stuck to his brief. Didn’t kick up about his treatment. And stayed loyal to the New Labour cause, voting for the Iraq war and for David Miliband to be leader.
And then he saw his big chance. In 2014 he announced he was running to be Labour’s candidate for London Mayor. And again, he opted to run on a pragmatic, centrist ticket. I remember going to see him at the time – at the invitation of one of his advisers David Mencer, now a senior spokesman for the Israeli government – and his pitch was well to the right of fellow candidates Sadiq Khan and Dianne Abbott.
Again, he crashed and burned. He came way behind Khan and Tessa Jowell and Abbott, securing just 9.4 per cent of the vote. Everyone confidently predicted the end of his political career.
At which point David Lammy thought ‘screw it’. He’d played the Westminster game. He’d kept his head down. He’d ploughed the well-trodden path of centrist moderation. And it had got him precisely nowhere.
So David Lammy the social-justice warrior was born. He began talking and writing about the scourge of racism, in particular the inequities of the Windrush scandal and the need for a proper commemoration of slavery. Producers who wanted a ‘black voice’ had him on speed-dial. He began sending tweets comparing himself to Omar, the shotgun-toting anti-hero from hit US TV series The Wire.
And it worked. David Lammy’s star was again in the ascendent. He was a player again. And this time, he wasn’t going to get thrown out of the balloon. Skilfully navigating the slow implosion of the Corbyn years, he aligned himself with Keir Starmer, backed him early for the leadership, and became one of his key allies.
So yes, our Foreign Secretary is bombastic. But that’s because he learnt the hard way that keeping your counsel is not the route to political advancement.
It’s true he’s chopped and changed his political positions. But again, which of our senior politicians hasn’t? Keir Starmer successfully slalomed his way to Downing Street. Kemi Badenoch and her colleagues are currently trying to distance themselves from every decision they took during 14 years of government.
And yes, there have been blunders. The precipitous rush to offload the Chagos islands. The earlier crowd-pleasing denunciations of Donald Trump. The half-baked arms embargo on Israel.
But during his political journey David Lammy has picked up a few tricks. And they have borne some fruit. He was the man who spotted the potential political significance of JD Vance, and formed an early and unlikely bromance with the next Vice-President.
It was Britain’s Foreign Secretary who captured the global headlines with his evisceration of Vladimir Putin at the United Nations, and who effectively demolished the Russian dictator’s pretence at being an anti-colonialist. At it was David Lammy – the supposed radical slavery campaigner – who defused the debate about reparations after Keir Starmer found himself ambushed at the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit.
No, David Lammy will not reach the rhetorical heights of Lord Palmerston. Or by his diplomatic guile prove to be Britain’s Henry Kissinger. But he is a survivor. And he’s got political game.
So laugh at Hammy Lammy all you like. But don’t be too quick to write him off.
