Washington/London: Britain’s ambassador to the US ‘has not served the UK well’ Donald Trump has said after the envoy called the President’s administration ‘clumsy’ and ‘inept’ in leaked diplomatic cables, prompting Prime Minister Theresa May to initiate damage control measures to repair London’s special relationship with Washington.
In secret cables and briefing notes, UK’s Ambassador to the US Kim Darroch warned the British government that President Trump’s ‘career could end in disgrace’, and described conflicts within the White House as ‘knife fights’, according to reports in the ‘Mail on Sunday’ newspaper.
“We don’t really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction driven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept,” Darroch allegedly wrote in one dispatch.
Darroch also said that President Trump and his team had been ‘dazzled’ by their recent state visit to the UK but that while ‘we might be flavor of the month, but this is still the land of ‘America First’.
When asked for his reaction to Darroch’s uncharitable comments, Trump told reporters Sunday, “No I haven’t seen it, but, you know, we’ve had our little ins and outs with a couple of countries and I would say the ambassador has not served the UK well, I can tell you that. We’re not big fans of that man and he has not served the UK well, so I can understand it. And I can say things about him but I won’t bother.”
May’s spokesman said Monday that the British PM has ‘full faith’ in Darroch but she does not agree with the envoy’s assessment. He made it clear that the leak of the diplomatic mail was ‘absolutely unacceptable’ and No. 10 had made contact with the White House.
The BBC, quoting the Prime Minister’s spokesman said it was ‘the job of ambassadors to provide honest and unvarnished opinions’ but May ‘does not agree with the assessment’.
“The leak is absolutely unacceptable and, as you would expect, contact has been made with the Trump administration setting out our view that we believe that it is unacceptable,” the spokesman added.
UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, trying to salvage the situation, said the memos reflected a ‘personal view’, not that of the UK government.
UK International Trade Minister Liam Fox also rushed to repair the damage to UK-US ties and said he would apologise to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump when he meets her during his current visit to Washington.
“I will be apologising for the fact that either our civil service or elements of our political class have not lived up to the expectations that either we have or the United States has about their behaviour, which in this particular case has lapsed in a most extraordinary and unacceptable way,” Fox told the BBC.
The leaked cables come at a sensitive time in UK politics with Conservative Party members currently electing a new Prime Minister to succeed May, who was toppled by her own lawmakers for failing to deliver on her country’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union.
PTI
