Was this the moment David Lammy stepped up as a Starmer asset? [Video]

David Lammy is possibly the cabinet minister who has most exceeded expectations in the transition from opposition to government. The foreign office is a big brief, difficult to make sense of and yet potentially critical to two of the core missions of government: security and prosperity.

Speeches by foreign secretaries tend to lose themselves in fine-sounding abstractions – but on Thursday Lammy produced a surprisingly coherent defence of “progressive realism”.

In a world of new threats, he offered a resolute commitment to national defence and Britain’s international alliances. And he set out a bold case for pragmatic engagement with controversial trading partners, including China, in the national economic interest.

The boy from Tottenham has come a long way to the top table at King Charles Street, where his outer office is adorned with a modern portrait by Joy Labinjo of Ignatius Sancho, the former slave who became a celebrated 18th-century …