The transatlantic uproar over the British ambassador’s private cables criticizing President Trump could set the stage for a warm U.S. partnership with the man poised to replace Prime Minister Theresa May, whose allies might have engineered the memos’ leak.
“The next British government is going to have a very different approach to working with the Trump White House,” the Heritage Foundation’s Nile Gardiner, an adviser to the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, told the Washington Examiner.
The dynamic is a double-edged sword for former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, the favorite to win this month’s election to succeed May. Johnson rushed to tamp down criticism that he was cowed by an angry Trump into throwing under the bus Sir Kim Darroch, the U.K. envoy to the United States, who resigned Wednesday after his confidential memos containing critical observations of the White House were leaked and Trump declared his administration would “no longer deal with him.”
“I regret that really,” Johnson told British reporters on hearing Darroch submitted his letter of resignation. “Whoever leaked his [diplomatic memos] really has done a grave disservice to our civil servants. … And I hope that whoever did it is run down, caught, and eviscerated, quite frankly.”
Johnson’s eulogy for Darroch, whom he termed a “brilliant” and “superb diplomat,” came after a torrent of criticism that he had betrayed the envoy during a televised debate Tuesday night with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, his rival in the race to replace May, who is relinquishing power after failing to negotiate a deal to complete the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.
“The whole cabinet rightly gave its full support to Sir Kim on Tuesday,” May said earlier Wednesday. “I hope the House will reflect on the importance of defending our values and principles, particularly when they come under pressure.”
That comment was a subtle jab at Johnson, who ducked repeatedly Tuesday when asked if he would keep Darroch in place if he is installed as prime minister later this month. “I’m not going to be so presumptuous,” he demurred.
That answer reportedly contributed to Darroch’s decision to resign and outraged Johnson’s former colleagues in the diplomatic corps. One senior official accused Johnson of showing “contemptible negligence” in failing to defend the envoy more emphatically.
“I think we should be protecting brilliant civil servants from that kind of publicity,” Johnson insisted Wednesday amid the backlash, before denying that he refused to support Darroch. “My view is that it’s wrong to drag civil servants into the political arena.”
Johnson’s ideological allies are widely suspected of orchestrating Darroch’s demise. The memos were leaked to Isabel Oakeshott, a journalist with close ties to leaders of the Brexit movement. She ghostwrote a book by Arron Banks, a businessman who co-founded a group devoted to the U.K.’s departure from the European Union and helped finance the Brexit campaign in the 2016 referendum that upended European politics.
“Like I’ve said, sometimes a great story is just that; not some kind of global conspiracy. MASSIVE eye roll,” Oakeshott tweeted Wednesday in response to a report noting her relationship to Banks and the businessman’s controversial contacts with Russian officials during the Brexit campaign. “For the record, I am the only person on this ridiculous diagram ever to have seen or handled the cables.”
Oakeshott asserted in her Mail on Sunday piece that Darroch’s “bombshell comments risk angering the notoriously thin-skinned President and undermining the UK’s ‘special relationship’ with America.” She called “one of the most sensitive documents” a cable in which Darroch wrote, “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 is an obvious target for Brexit supporters, as his 43-year diplomatic career involved a stint as the U.K. ambassador to the European Union from 2004 to 2007. He took over as the country’s top U.S. diplomat in January 2016, in time to observe the final year of President Barack Obama’s tenure and Trump’s unexpected victory in the November election.
“Darroch gave his own personal views in diplomatic cables, as ambassadors do,” Gardiner observed. “It illustrates a broader tension between Theresa May’s Downing Street and Donald Trump’s White House.”
It is perhaps a sign of May’s anger over the leaks that she is reportedly considering naming Darroch’s replacement before the conclusion of the leadership elections on July 23. His resignation has only heightened the passions around what could be a deeply personal mole hunt.
“There is no evidence of a hack,” Simon McDonald, a senior British diplomat, told lawmakers in an apparent refutation of rumors that Russian intelligence services might be responsible for the leaks. “We will pursue the culprits with all the means at our disposal.”
In the meantime, the perception that Darroch was a casualty of the fight between Brexiteers and the European Union could play to Johnson’s advantage, if his march to the prime minister’s office continues uninterrupted, as he will face an Oct. 31 deadline to strike a deal with the European Union.
“Boris Johnson needs very strong U.S. backing for Brexit, you need the support of the world superpower on your side,” Gardiner said. “And at the same time Donald Trump needs a British prime minister who is going to stand with him on the world stage.”
