LONDON, July 4: Britain's outgoing prime minister Keir Starmer warned his probable successor Andy Burnham in an interview released Saturday that he cannot ignore international turmoil and just concentrate on the country's domestic problems.
So far, former Manchester mayor Burnham is the only candidate to take over the centre-left party. He could be in office by mid-July.
"Whoever's my successor is going to face the same global conflict. We keep saying, and it's true, we're in a more dangerous and volatile world than we've been in for probably most of my lifetime. That's not just a phrase, that's reality," Starmer told the BBC.
Burnham's supporters have said he should put more focus on domestic issues, such as the cost of living, and Burnham said this week that decentralisation of government would be a priority.
But in a social media question-and-answer session Friday, he discussed international topics and said he would "100 percent" give the same support to Ukraine as Starmer.
Asked by the BBC, Starmer said his successor would not be able to spend less time on diplomacy.
"There's often this discussion -- what's the right balance between dealing with international affairs and dealing with domestic affairs? They're one and the same thing," Starmer said.
"If you’re prime minister and you care what bills are going to be like in any household around the country, you have to care about finding a lasting solution to the situation in Ukraine, you have to care about what happens in the Strait of Hormuz."�" AFP
