RACE AND CULTURE: ‘Israel’s actions affect our security’

The weeks since the death of Robin Cook have seen an unwholesome squabble concerning who will inherit the ‘legacy’ of the former foreign secretary. Chancellor Gordon Brown made an instant smash-and-grab raid, while allies of the Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain have been furtively suggesting that he is the true inheritor.

There is a respectable case to be made, however, that the backbencher John Denham is the only mainstream Labour politician who has a legitimate claim to step into Robin Cook’s shoes. Denham’s resignation on the eve of the Iraq war was rather more courageous even than Robin Cook’s, because he had far more to lose.

Denham was on the way up. His unobtrusive competence as a minister, first at Social Security, later at the Home Office, inspired glowing reports. He was the insider’s tip to join the Cabinet. When Denham resigned, he said farewell to a future at the the highest level in government: Robin Cook, however distinguished, was already in the exit chamber.