Odds-on favourite

Date: 10/04/1997

THE UK's European partners could be forgiven for thinking that the Scots have a monopoly over British foreign policy, as one politician from north of the border looks set to replace another as the country's foreign minister.

With the Conservative government languishing in the opinion polls, current incumbent Malcolm Rifkind is expected to hand over the reins to the Labour Party's foreign affairs spokesman Robin Cook after the 1 May general election.

Foreign policy was not Cook's first choice as a heavyweight portfolio, but he has thrown himself into it with a vengeance since becoming shadow foreign minister in 1994.

But in one way, the appointment was not surprising. Cook has been a firm internationalist all his life and in the early 1980s, the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock gave his political career a leg up by making him the party's spokesman on Europe. “I decided that we needed to raise the profile of European policy and Robin had just been elected to the shadow cabinet for the first time, so I made him our first ever spokesman on European affairs. Now, 15 years on, he is going to become foreign secretary and I think that is damn good,” says Kinnock, now one of the UK's two European Commissioners.

Within days of Cook taking over as his party's foreign affairs spokesman, he had called sundry MEPs, national politicians, academics and journalists to his London office to brief him on all aspects of EU policy.

Now, with the IGC end-game drawing near, the UK's presidency of the Union in the first half of next year and EU enlargement looming on the horizon, that careful preparation looks set to stand him in good stead.

In the past two and a half years, Cook has struck up a remarkably good relationship with Labour MEPs - in marked contrast to the almost non-existent links between them and most of his predecessors - and become a familiar face in the wider Socialist political family.

“When we had to decide on the customs union with Turkey, for instance, Cook listened to all views among Labour members and then when he put the case for supporting it, he presented it cogently and with intellectual rigour. He did not just say that we had to follow the line laid down by the party leadership,” recalls one MEP.

By common consent, Cook's interest in the Union is not based on a gut feeling for Europe. “He is basically pragmatic. But in the past two years he has increasingly understood the potential for policy development which exists in the Union context and the fact that EU policies and issues are tantamount to domestic policies and issues,” says a British colleague.

One of the keys to the nimble performance Cook has given so far lies in the small network of key colleagues in his orbit. One pivotal player is Larry (now Lord) Whitty. Previously Labour's general secretary, Whitty enjoys an influential role in his new position as European policy coordinator.

Another is Joyce Quin, Labour's European affairs spokesman and former MEP. With a confident grasp of EU minutiae and the ability to speak French and German, she plays an uncomplaining second fiddle to the monolingual Cook.

The third, and somewhat unlikely, member of the network is Sir Michael Butler, a former UK ambassador to the Union who, in an imaginative move last September, was appointed as Labour's special envoy on enlargement.

In practice, Butler's role is wider, advising Cook and Labour leader Tony Blair on both the Intergovernmental Conference and the single currency.

Until Cook was moved from his trade and industry brief in 1994, foreign policy really took second place to economic issues in his mind. Nor is it a secret that his future sights are still set on a central economic portfolio such as the finance ministry.

That Cook was transferred from his preferred arena of economics is hardly surprising given that the triumvirate of Labour heavyweights - himself, Gordon Brown (shadow finance minister) and John Prescott (employment spokesman) - were constantly at odds with each other.

Even now, the chemistry between Cook and Brown is remarkably antagonistic, despite their similar Scottish educational backgrounds and earlier political and literary collaboration in the 1970s.

Various theories abound for the deterioration in their relationship, ranging from personal rivalry to the clash between Cook's neo-Keynesian views and Brown's belief that influencing demand through public spending is now obsolete.

The relationship is further complicated by the former's mistrust of, and the latter's affection for, a single currency.

Whatever the reason, both realise that differences between two of the most powerful figures in a Labour government would be disastrous and insiders suggest that they are now actively trying to patch up their relationship.

The burdens of government may well help to ease that friction.

“The sheer pressures of office will make Cook the most detached member of the cabinet. He is likely to be negotiating in Moscow when a Labour government is examining child benefit and he will also be dominated by his own brief,” predicts one colleague.

And those overseas trips could begin as early as next month if Labour wins the election and Cook is immediately thrown into the nitty-gritty of IGC negotiations.

They would certainly become even more demanding from 1 July when the UK will become formally part of the Union's troika and the foreign secretary coordinates EU business with his Dutch and Luxembourg colleagues.

As well as trying to keep one eye on economic issues, Cook will also still take a keen interest in Labour's constitutional reform package. Once an opponent of a Scottish parliament, he is now one of the strongest supporters of the plan to devolve a large measure of political control away from London.

Cook's popularity in Scotland is not in doubt. At Labour's last Scottish conference, the standing ovation he received eclipsed the enthusiastic reception given to other leading members of the shadow cabinet, prompting speculation that he might eventually exchange his seat in Westminster for the post of first prime minister of a new Scottish parliament.

He is also a passionate advocate of reform of the UK's distinctive first-past-the-post electoral system. He has consistently championed the cause of proportional representation, taking it from fringe meetings at Labour's annual conferences to centre stage in the party's deliberations on electoral reform.

Cook's penchant for acerbic comments has marked him out, especially among critics, as a prickly individual and uncertain team player. It is a view which close colleagues insist misjudges the Scottish MP.

“He is not naturally gregarious, but he is not remote and he does not patronise people. He can give an impression of pomposity, but he tends to use it as a very sharp oratorical weapon,” explains one colleague.

Kinnock, who employed Cook as his party leadership campaign manager in 1983 and 1988, is in no doubt about the prospective UK foreign secretary's ability.

“Robin is very, very bright, very funny and excellent company. He is careful and systematic when doing anything analytical or in campaigning work,” he says.

Cook is also one of Labour's most effective political debaters. One of his finest hours was his forensic demolition of the Conservative government's defence over the scandal of covert arms sales to Iraq.

It prompted a congratulatory note from Blair, describing the performance as “one of the highlights of my time in parliament”.

There is no doubt that after 23 years at Westminster, 51-year-old Cook is hungrier than most for ministerial office.

Interestingly, during his time as an MP his listed recreations have changed dramatically. In 1988, he described them as “eating, reading and talking”. Now they include “changing society” - something he just might be able to achieve as a senior member of the first UK Labour government for 18 years.

But he may have to pay a price for getting his hand on the levers of power. Cook is a keen follower of horse racing and somehow finds time to write a highly respected, and remarkably prescient, weekly column of racing tips for the Scottish national newspaper The Herald.

High office will not dim his love for the sport, nor will it prevent him from indulging his fondness for horse-riding, but it may well put paid to that weekly column.