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With Parliament in recess for party conference season, the action has largely taken place away from Westminster this week. Indeed, many of our leading politicians have used the time to get some travelling done.
Theresa May has been in the US and given her first address to the UN General Assembly. Reflecting on the unprecedented global refugee crisis, the Prime Minister used her speech to call for a ‘new global approach’ to dealing with unmanageable population movements. May also used her trip to meet leading US businesses and to reassure Wall Street that Brexit will not damage their business in the UK.
May has not been the only member of the cabinet out and about building relations and courting foreign businesses. Sajid Javid has been busy ‘bringing the Midlands to the Midwest’, promoting the Midlands Engine and highlighting the opportunities to trade during a speech to the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.
Meanwhile, Liam Fox has been in the Middle East seeking to develop stronger relations between the UK and the Gulf States. Fox’s focus on the Gulf has raised concerns that the UK is ignoring human rights issues in the region. As the UK seeks to reposition its place in the world post-Brexit, we can expect the debate over trade versus human rights to become more prominent.
Not to be outdone by his Conservative counterparts, Labour’s Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, has also been over in the US banging the drum for London. Having blasted Donald Trump over his views on Islam, pitching the first ball at a New York Mets game and (dare I say it) generally looking like the leader of a political party, Khan has returned to London calling for more financial powers to be given to City Hall – akin to those freedoms enjoyed by New York. Khan’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, spent his time at City Hall calling for the same without success, so we shall see whether Khan is able to extract more tax-raising powers from a Treasury notorious for not wanting to relinquish them.
Whilst Khan has been on the other side of the Atlantic, Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith have been out campaigning for the Labour leadership. We wait with baited breath for Labour conference, where the result will be announced on the Saturday. At this stage it seems likely that Corbyn will once again be victorious with the distinct possibility that we’ll be going through the whole process again next summer.
The Liberal Democrats’ travels have been to the more traditional climes of Brighton, where they have congregated for their annual conference. With Farron struggling to achieve any sort of cut-through, the conference was most notable for the Lib Dem leader calling for a further referendum once the UK’s Brexit deal is agreed. Of course, whether the public has the appetite to go through that particular ordeal again will determine if the Lib Dems have struck on a vote winner or not.