Senior Conservatives have distanced themselves wildly from Donald Trump after four years of praising the US president as a close ally of Britain, among other things by giving him a three-day state visit and as recently as two weeks ago him as a great friend of the United Kingdom described.
Labor has accused the Conservative party of not calling out Trump, after it became clear weeks ago that he was refusing to accept the outcome of the presidential election. It also accused senior Tories of years of dissatisfaction with a well-known populist who insulted his allies, preached conspiracy theories, and by treating authoritarianists as his natural allies, undermined democracy everywhere.
Labor pointed to interviews in which Boris Johnson said Trump was just as worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize as Barack Obama and described him as a standard New York liberal. In 2018, Johnson said: ‘I’m increasingly admiring Donald Trump. I became more and more convinced that there was a method in his madness. ‘Photos of Michael Gove, the current cabinet minister and leading Brexit campaigner, smiling with his thumbs up with the president, captured the initial mood.
But in a tweet on Wednesday night, Johnson, who Trump himself describes by Trump, tweeted: ‘Scandalous scenes in the US Congress. The United States stands for democracy around the world and it is now imperative that there be an orderly and peaceful transfer of power. ”
His remarks, which avoided direct criticism of Trump’s role in inciting violence, provoked a sharp reaction from former shadow foreign minister Emily Thornberry, who tweeted: ‘Is this? Not a word of direct criticism of Trump. No condemnation of the incitement. No recognition that this is the culmination of 4 years of division, lies and contempt. 4 years when our own Britain Trump (as the president called him) behaved like a shameful sycophant. ”
Emily Thornberry
(@EmilyThornberry)Is that it? Not a word of direct criticism of Trump. No condemnation of the incitement. No recognition that this is the culmination of 4 years of division, lies and contempt. 4 years when our own Britain Trump (as the president called him) behaved like a shameful sycophant # Shameful https://t.co/uW7E6rWcF3
Thornberry challenged Secretary of State for two years to challenge Johnson over his closeness to Trump and warned him he was making a strategic mistake that would eventually backfire. Shortly after the election results were dismissed by Trump as fraudulent, Thornberry urged the government to be more direct in its condemnation.
Perhaps pierced by the criticism, Johnson finally went further at his press conference in the late afternoon in Downing Street when confronted directly about the matter. He said: “Insofar as he encouraged people to storm the Capitol and insofar as the president constantly questioned the free and fair election, I think that what the president said about it is completely wrong. I unconditionally condemn to encourage people to behave in the disgraceful way as in the Capitol. ”
Until then, the former Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt, had come to the clearest condemnation: ‘America is the largest, most important democracy in the world, a light on the hill for freedom. President Trump has told a crowd to march to Capitol Hill and called on his vice president to enforce the law. He shames American democracy tonight and causes his friends anxiety, but he is not America. ‘
Hunt was accompanied by other former foreign ministers who believe Trump should be removed from the presidency immediately. The chairman of the Defense Committee, Tobias Ellwood, accused Trump of undermining democracy, inciting violence, fueling divisions and damaging what the country stands for and believes. Why does it say? He has 2 weeks left and will not go quiet. ”
Alistair Burt, another former Secretary of State, also called for Trump to be fired immediately. In contrast, his successor, James Cleverly, limited by his office, spoke of his plight at the scene in Washington as if the capital had been hit by a natural disaster.
The British government’s overall British strategy has always been that it would be suicidal to fall out with Trump, and by influencing those around him, such as his son-in-law Jared Kushner, British interests – including a potential free trade agreement – could be protected. post-Brexit.
In the process, Britain has absorbed frequent humiliations, including ignoring important diplomatic movements such as the withdrawal of US troops from Northeast Syria, the US withdrawal from the Iran deal, bullying over Huawei’s role in 5G and public criticism of Theresa May. see Brexit strategy.
It was symptomatic of the relationship and a cause of distress for many in the Foreign Office when Johnson failed to stand by former British Ambassador to Washington Kim Darroch after leaking cables critical of Trump’s personality . The documents, written in 2017, rightly predicted that the Trump administration would not become less dysfunctional, less unpredictable, less factional, less diplomatically clumsy and incompetent.
Much of this tolerance was due to the fact that Brexiters saw Trump and their own rise because of the same ideological pit. Jacob Rees-Mogg wrote in the Times in 2018 before one of Trump’s visits: ‘It is our national happiness that the president with whom we will develop this new arrangement, Mr. Trump is. His election depends on similar factors to those that led to Brexit. He appealed to voters left behind by the metropolitan elite and he trusts his own nation and a determination not to be a driver of decline, which also inspires the Brexiters. Britain, he said, citing former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, could play the role of the Greeks for the Americans’ Romans.