LONDON, June 28. /TASS/. The UK Labour Party’s program reflects the anti-Russian attitude of the United Kingdom’s political establishment, therefore Russian-UK relations are unlikely to change if Labour Party leader Keir Starmer rises to power following the July 4 general election, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin told TASS.
"The program, unveiled by the Labor Party, has lots of papers and lots of Keir Starmer’s portraits, but very few details, particularly with regard to economic affairs. It contains slogans about the need to boost the economy and fight inflation, but no information on how this is supposed to be done," the Russian diplomat said.
Commenting on the 136-page document, Kelin said it contained "a standard set [of provisions]" with regard to Ukraine, including declarations of support to Ukraine and calls to set up a special tribunal for Russia, as well as calls to confiscate Russia’s assets with subsequent transfer to Ukraine.
"In all, it reflects the general anti-Russian approach," the ambassador said.
"I don’t think Russia’s relations with the UK will improve under Starmer. Just like the entire Labour Party leadership, he fully shares the incumbent government’s ideas and follows them to the letter," Kelin added.
In his words, "the matter of Russia was almost never raised" during the TV debates.
"It turned out that voters are not particularly interested in it. However, it is mentioned in all <…> electoral programs that have already been published by all leading political parties," Kelin said. "The ideas expressed there are fairly standard.".