Lame-duck British Prime Minister Theresa May will not race to appoint a new ambassador to the United States, outgoing envoy Kim Darroch revealed in a private staff meeting.
Darroch, who was forced to resign after his confidential memos criticizing President Trump and his “dysfunctional” national security team leaked, told U.K. Embassy staff Thursday afternoon that “the new prime minister” will name his successor, a diplomatic source told the Washington Examiner.
That suggests former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a firm supporter of Brexit and the favorite in the race to replace May, has won yet another victory over the prime minister’s allies through an unprecedented leak of politically sensitive memos.
“I think the next ambassador who comes in is going to be, quite possibly, someone who has been very much involved in Brexit,” the Heritage Foundation’s Nile Gardiner, a former adviser to the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, told the Washington Examiner.
May was reportedly contemplating naming a new ambassador before the end of the month, but Johnson’s allies have been lobbying publicly and privately for her to leave the decision to him. That internal jockeying has taken place against a backdrop of suspicion about who sparked the conflagration that ended Darroch’s diplomatic career.
The leak is widely perceived to be part of “a clearing-out exercise” by Johnson’s allies in the Brexit movement, according to the diplomatic source. The abrupt vacancy gives Johnson a chance to send one of his lieutenants to Washington, sidelining Sir Mark Sedwill, the head of the civil service and May’s national security adviser, who was poised to succeed Darroch at the end of the year.
“I can’t believe they’re trying to blame me for this,” Johnson told British media this week in response to allegations that he’s to blame for Darroch’s ouster. “It seems bizarre to me. I’m a great supporter of Kim’s. I worked very well with him for years. I spoke to him just now to offer my good wishes.”
That public declaration of support only came after Darroch resigned Wednesday, following two days of public flogging by President Trump. Darroch attracted the president’s ire after a British media outlet published cables in which the ambassador described Trump as “radiating insecurity,” the nervous leader of an administration that is “diplomatically clumsy and inept.”
Trump’s subsequent anger forced Johnson and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, the two rivals in the race to replace May, into a difficult choice. They could offer support for an envoy reviled in the Oval Office or allow Darroch to fall — at the risk of making diplomats believe they can’t speak freely to their superiors about the Trump administration. Hunt defended Darroch.
Johnson, who is likely to be prime minister by the end of the month, refused to state whether he would keep Darroch in place, saying Tuesday night during a debate with Hunt that he wouldn’t “be so presumptuous” about the outcome of the leadership election. That demurral reportedly contributed to Darroch’s decision to resign the following morning.
“I think there is absolutely a sense of nervousness among ambassadors and diplomats in Washington, not just Britain, but Europe broadly, about how frank and candid they are in their reporting to their home countries,” another European diplomat told the Washington Examiner. “This incident has shown the effects of that, and absolutely there is a sense of caution and nervousness around traditional diplomatic reporting. How candid can one be now?”
Darroch departed Friday on a three-week vacation planned before the kerfuffle, but he will remain ambassador until his successor arrives.
Before leaving, he told his staff that he considered trying to stay in the post, according to the diplomatic source, but decided it wasn’t practical: He would be on eggshells for the rest of his time in Washington, waiting for Trump’s next tweet attacking him, and that could make him an ineffective advocate for British interests.
The outgoing ambassador was honored as a martyr at the Thursday staff meeting, drawing huge applause when he stressed the importance of speaking truth to power — a perhaps-unintentional echo of May’s subtle rebuke of Johnson the morning after the debate.
“I hope the House will reflect on the importance of defending our values and principles, particularly when they come under pressure,” May said Wednesday.
