Britain’s Labour Party takes lessons from Joe Biden

VISITING WASHINGTON MPthis month, David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, and John Healey, his colleague covering defence, paused for a photo by a bronze memorial to President Franklin Roosevelt. It was a nod to another photo taken at the same spot of Tony Blair, then the new prime minister, Bill Clinton, then the president, and their wives. That was in 1998, a time of “third way” politics, when the leaders of the Labour and the Democratic parties hoped to fuse a belief in free markets with social progress.It is a bond that Labour hopes to revive. The party has long drawn from Democratic waters: even Jeremy Corbyn, the previous leader who loathed American power, found a soulmate in Bernie Sanders. But rarely has it drunk as deeply as today. Polls suggest Sir Keir Starmer is on course to become prime minister in an election that is almost certain next year. Joe Biden’s administration is providing the party with inspiration for its electoral strategy, an economic agenda, and an approach to geopolitics. Its s and advisers make pilgrimages to Washington; speeches by Mr Biden’s aides are pored over.