Hunt in trouble Is Boris too far ahead?
Britain’s ambassador to the US resigned this week after leaked memos in which he criticised the Trump White House sparked a transatlantic row. In confidential telegrams sent to senior politicians and civil servants, and leaked to The Mail on Sunday, Sir Kim Darroch had written: “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.”
Donald Trump responded furiously, taking to Twitter to declare that Darroch was “not well thought of”, and that “we will no longer deal with him”. He also ridiculed Theresa May’s handling of Brexit. The following day he renewed his attack on the ambassador, calling him “wacky”, “stupid” and a “pompous fool”. Downing Street stated that it had “full faith” in Darroch, while Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called Trump’s comments “disrespectful and wrong”. Boris Johnson, by contrast, refused to back the diplomat, who resigned on Wednesday, saying that the leak had made it “impossible” to do his job.
What the editorials said
Whoever leaked the ambassador’s emails is a “stone cold villain”, said The Independent. Diplomats are paid to provide their political masters back home with candid assessments of their host countries. If their opinions are passed to the press, there’s a real risk that they will choose in future to “pull their punches”. Trump’s response was disgraceful, too, said The Times: “unacceptably hostile” and “profoundly disrespectful” to a staunch ally. The president’s outburst posed a “diplomatic test”: either stand up for a respected British official, or surrender to Trump’s tantrum by “throwing Sir Kim under a bus”. Hunt passed; Johnson failed.
If anyone doubted Darroch’s verdict on Trump, the president’s response provided yet more proof, said The Guardian. In fact, the ambassador’s comments look “decidedly diplomatic” compared to some that have leaked from the White House, describing the president as “an idiot, a moron or unhinged”. Even so, it’s a great pity that Darroch’s views have undermined recent attempts to improve the relationship, said The Daily Telegraph. Undoing the damage will be one more problem for the next PM to “add to his in-tray”.
What the commentators said
This row “underlines the precariousness of Brexit Britain’s international position”, said Gideon Rachman in the FT. As Darroch pointed out in one of the cables, Trump’s mantra is “America First”; he has no qualms about rounding on old allies. This week, trade secretary Liam Fox was in Washington to discuss new trade deals, and that difficult job now looks more difficult still. The big question, said Andrew Woodcock in The Independent, is who leaked the cables, and why? Despite initial suspicions of Russian skulduggery, Downing Street said this week that there is nothing to suggest “hostile state actors were involved”. Instead, the finger of suspicion points to the 100 or so senior politicians and civil servants who were given access to the cables. Since they were leaked to Isabel Oakeshott, a journalist with links to Nigel Farage and Arron Banks, speculation is rife that the incident may have been an attempt to undermine a “strongly Europhile ambassador”, and clear the way for a pro-Brexit, pro-Trump successor.
“We send diplomats abroad so they can get insight into foreign powers,” said Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph. What strikes me about Darroch’s memos is how little value they add. There is nothing in them that couldn’t be read in our “posh papers”. Darroch has clearly failed to connect with Trump at all. “Seeping through all Sir Kim’s messages is a profound pessimism” about the president and his agenda, which is typical of the civil service and indeed the Government as a whole. There’s no doubt that Trump “can be trouble”; but his presidency offers opportunities too, which Britain ought to be seizing. Darroch had to go, said Simon Jenkins in The Guardian. He seems to have thought his opinions would be kept secret. “If so, he was a fool.” With the coming of the internet, “foreign office officials were wisely told to commit nothing to electronic communication they did not want to see on the front of the Daily Mail.” Darroch clearly forgot this – despite WikiLeaks and the rest. Diplomats need to realise that if they want to share a secret, they have to close their screens. “If Darroch was so keen to convey his pearls of wisdom to his colleagues, he should have given them lunch in his club.”
What next?
The Cabinet Office has ordered an inquiry into the leaks and the culprit could face dismissal from the civil service or prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. May said Darroch had had the full backing of the Cabinet and was owed an “enormous debt of gratitude” for his “lifetime of service”.
Johnson may face serious criticism for failing to back Darroch. Sources told the FT that Darroch watched Johnson in the televised debate on Tuesday evening, and then decided to resign, after concluding that the likely next prime minister was someone who, “when the chips are down, was willing to throw civil servants under the bus”.