Ambassador 'has PM's full support' despite Trump criticism
1 hour ago
Mr Trump said he will "no longer deal with" Sir
Kim Darroch
Downing Street has reiterated the UK's ambassador to the US
has Theresa May's "full support", despite Donald Trump saying he will
no longer work with him.
The US president was responding after leaked emails revealed
Sir Kim Darroch had called his administration inept.
In a series of tweets, Mr Trump also criticised Mrs May's
handling of Brexit saying she had created "a mess".
Number 10 called the leak "unfortunate" and said
the UK and US still shared a "special and enduring" relationship.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "We have made clear to
the US how unfortunate this leak is. The selective extracts leaked do not
reflect the closeness of, and the esteem in which we hold, the
relationship."
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But he said ambassadors needed to be able to provide honest
assessments of the politics in their country, and the prime minister stood by
Sir Kim.
"The UK has a special and enduring relationship with
the US based on our long history and commitment to shared values and that will
continue to be the case," he said.
Speaking on Monday following Mr Trump's initial comments on
the leaked emails, Downing Street said the prime minister did not agree with
Sir Kim's assessment but had "full faith" in him.
Police were urged to open a criminal investigation into the
leak in addition to an internal inquiry launched by the government.
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs committee,
told MPs he had made the request in a letter to the Met Police.
The Met said it had received Mr Tugendhat's request but had
not received an official governmental referral of allegations in relation to
the Official Secrets Act.
Such a referral would be required for a criminal
investigation to be considered, a Met spokesman said.
The Trump question faced by the next PM
Downing Street's response is a classically formal
"thanks, but no thanks". A stiff brush-off in riposte to the US
president's digital tirade, which was extraordinary even by his standards.
With the current prime minister almost out of the door, and
the UK ambassador in Washington leaving too, the remarks are unlikely to change
much directly, and this allows Number 10 to try to shrug off the criticism.
Less officially, though, there is real frustration. One
senior Tory warned that "we cannot bow down to this form of lunacy"
where the leader of another country tries to use online swagger to seek revenge
on one of the UK's diplomats - not least from one of our most important allies.
Confidential emails from the UK's ambassador, leaked to the
Mail on Sunday, contained a string of criticisms of Mr Trump and his
administration, describing the White House as "clumsy and inept".
Sir Kim, who became ambassador to the US in January 2016 about
a year before Mr Trump took office, questioned whether this White House
"will ever look competent" but also warned that the US president
should not be written off.
The emails, dating from 2017, said rumours of
"infighting and chaos" in the White House were mostly true and policy
on sensitive issues such as Iran was "incoherent, chaotic".
An ex-British ambassador to the US and a close friend of Sir
Kim's told Radio 4's Today programme there was a "possible range of
villains" who potentially could have made the leak.
Sir Christopher Meyer added: "It was clearly somebody
who set out deliberately to sabotage Sir Kim's ambassadorship, to make his
position untenable and to have him replaced by somebody more congenial to the
leaker."
The US president responded to Sir Kim's comments published
in the Mail on Sunday article by saying "we're not big fans of that man
and he has not served the UK well".
But on Monday Mr Trump escalated his response with a series
of tweets criticising Mrs May and her handling of Brexit.
"What a mess she and her representatives have
created," the US president said.
"I do not know the ambassador, but he is not liked or
well thought of within the US. We will no longer deal with him."
He said that it was "good news" for the UK that it
would soon have a new prime minister.
The US state department declined to comment on Mr Trump's
remarks, but the ambassador was disinvited from a dinner held at the White
House on Monday night for the Emir of Qatar.
BBC New York correspondent Nick Bryant said Sir Kim was
still planning to join International Trade Secretary Liam Fox for a scheduled
meeting with the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, unless he is rebuffed
again.
By saying he won't deal with Sir Kim Darroch any more,
Donald Trump is apparently all but declaring the ambassador to be persona non
grata. That is the formal legal process by which a host government expels a
foreign diplomat.
The key question now is what the president means by the word
"deal". If the royal "we" used by Mr Trump means that his
entire administration will no longer deal with Sir Kim or any of his staff then
the British government may have to decide to fast track the retirement of their
man in Washington.
Sir Kim, who is an honourable man and was stepping down
anyway in a few months, may decide to resign. If, however, Mr Trump merely
means he won't deal personally with Sir Kim then the ambassador may stay on
until the new prime minister can make his own appointment.
This all presents the British government with an awkward
dilemma - to buckle under US pressure and bring Sir Kim home, risking
accusations of abject weakness, or to stand firm and defend their ambassador
for doing his job and telling the truth as he sees it, risking even further
damage to the UK-US relationship.
Trump says administration will ‘no longer deal with’ British
ambassador
‘The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is that they
will soon have a new Prime Minister,’ tweets US president.
By QUINT
FORGEY 7/8/19, 9:46 PM CET Updated 7/8/19,
11:35 PM CET
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday trashed British Prime
Minister Theresa May and threatened to “no longer deal with” the United
Kingdom’s ambassador to Washington following leaks of the envoy's reportedly
harsh assessment of Trump’s administration.
“I have been very critical about the way the U.K. and Prime
Minister Theresa May handled Brexit. What a mess she and her representatives
have created. I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another
way,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“I do not know the Ambassador, but he is not liked or well …
thought of within the U.S. We will no longer deal with him,” Trump continued.
“The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is that they will soon have a
new Prime Minister. While I thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent State Visit last
month, it was the Queen who I was most impressed with!”
The Daily Mail, a British tabloid, reported Saturday that
U.K. Ambassador Kim Darroch leveled various insults against Trump and his White
House in memos to London dating back to 2017.
“We don't really believe this Administration is going to
become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less
faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept,” Darroch wrote in one of
the documents, according to the Mail.
A U.K. government spokesperson said in response to Trump's
tweets that London had been in touch with Washington to make clear "how
unfortunate this leak is."
"The selective extracts leaked do not reflect the
closeness of, and the esteem in which we hold, the relationship," the
spokesperson said.
“At the same time, we have also underlined the importance of
ambassadors being able to provide honest, unvarnished assessments of the politics
in their country. Sir Kim Darroch continues to have the prime minister’s full
support.
“The U.K. has a special and enduring relationship with the
U.S. based on our long history and commitment to shared values and that will
continue to be the case.”
British trade minister Liam Fox also told BBC Radio he would
apologize to Ivanka Trump on his scheduled visit to Washington during their
planned meeting.
Asked for comment on whether the administration would cease
its diplomatic relationship with Darroch, the State Department referred
questions to the White House.
Speaking to reporters in New Jersey on Sunday, Trump
asserted that Darroch “has not served the U.K. well,” adding: “We’re not big
fans of that man.”
In a press conference with May last month during his first
state visit to the U.K., Trump praised the outgoing prime minister as “probably
a better negotiator than I am,” and said she deserves “a lot of credit” for her
handling of Brexit.
Charlie Cooper contributed reporting.
Authors:
Quint Forgey
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