Thornberry says Britain will lead efforts to seize Russian assets ...Middle East

Britain is leading efforts for Western nations to seize around £300bn of Russian state assets to help rebuild Ukraine, according to the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC).

Sir Keir Starmer has publicly only committed to “look at the possibilities” of seizing Russian cash frozen when Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine three years ago.

In a little-noticed hardening of the position David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, recently told MPs that “Europe has to act quickly and I believe we should move from freezing assets to seizing assets”.

Speaking with The i Paper Emily Thornberry said London was leading a growing consensus in European capitals that the measure was a justified response to the damage caused by Russia to its neighbour.

“Britain is in favour of it, finally, the French are coming round and Germany is talking about it,” she said.

“If you aggressively go into another country and smash it up in the way that the Russians have then actually it’s within international law for the international community to seize their assets and to use them to rebuild the country.”

The move had been delayed because of concerns in countries like Belgium and institutions like the European Central Bank, added the former shadow attorney general.

She acknowledged that some international lawyers believed the move could not be justified and critics worried that the move would undermine faith in the Western central banks.

Most of the frozen Russian sovereign assets are UK, US and European bonds.

Thornberry was passed over for a Cabinet job by Starmer but has been generally supportive in her new role of as head of the FAC, one of the Commons’ most influential committees.

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“There are some grown-ups in Number 10 who are doing foreign policy these days. I mean, it’s great. I’m sorry I can’t be cynical about it,” she said, pointing to the role Britain played in mediating between Ukraine and the US after the Oval Office spat.

She applauds Starmer’s approach of seeking not to overreact to every move by US President Donald Trump.

“We can’t just jump every morning when we wake up to see what Donald Trump has said. We’ve got to pace ourselves, but also respond to what’s serious,” she said.

“We have been missed by the international community so much because we have spent all these years fighting amongst ourselves, taking fluff out of our navel, arguing about Brexit, breaking international law, having a foreign secretary people openly laughed at – and now we’re back.”

Labour’s aid cuts ‘risk tidal wave of misinformation’

Thornberry, 64, says she is concerned that aid cuts to fund increased defence will lead the UK to withdraw from some parts of the world, notably Africa and smaller island states, however.

And she says it would be a mistake to cut funding for the BBC World Service given a coming tidal wave of misinformation she predicts will come from Putin whatever happens over Ukraine.

“I don’t think it will be tanks rolling through Eastern Europe but there is going to be such mischief in Eastern Europe, such disinformation and efforts to manipulate.”

She also wants the UK to be more proactive in preparing the ground in case the Israeli government attempts to wreck the remaining chances of a two-state solution.

“I don’t see any plan from the Israelis as to what’s going to happen next in Gaza. I mean, if I see anything, I see a plan for annexation of the West Bank, and that is the end of there being a two-state solution,” she said.

“We all know that it’s definitely on the agenda of some people in the Israeli government and we have to have a response ready. It isn’t going to be enough for us to just say, ‘This is terrible’. I want to know that there is a plan B, that the international community will work as one to stop it.”

And Thornberry says it is “disappointing” that the Government hasn’t done more work in deciding what it wants from a “reset” with the European Union.

She reveals that she was told to stop working on plans while in the shadow Cabinet for fear of giving ammunition to Tory attacks that Labour wanted to reverse Brexit.

Emily Thornberry wants the Government to do more to reset relations with the EU following Brexit (Photo: AFP/Getty)

“I think that that’s a weakness, and I think that ideally we should have done more work before the election on what a reset would look like.

“When I was shadow trade [secretary], I was putting together lists and was told to stop. It’s disappointing that we haven’t been able to get going faster.”

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She says she was “hurt” that Starmer passed her over for a Cabinet job and says that she had been looking forward to being a minister after a long spell in opposition.

But as a Labour “loyalist” she said she wanted him to succeed.

“I’ve always been of the view that a Labour government is what we want more than anything else, and it is my duty to make any leader as good as we possibly can be, and support him and make sure that we are fit for government.”

But Labour faces a growing rebellion over benefits cuts.

Thornberry believes the party will rightly be judged to have failed if levels of child poverty are higher at the end of the parliament than they were when Starmer took power.

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