Donald Trump will ‘no longer deal’ with British ambassador to US

Olivia Tobin9 July 2019

US President Donald Trump has announced he will “no longer deal” with the British ambassador to the United States.

Mr Trump also hit out at Theresa May in an explosive series of tweets and accused the Prime Minister of making a “mess” of Brexit.

In tweets posted on Monday, Mr Trump said Sir Kim Darroch, the UK’s ambassador in Washington, was “not liked or well thought of within the US”.

Mr Trump said: "I have been very critical about the way the UK and Prime Minister Theresa May handled Brexit.

AFP/Getty Images

"What a mess she and her representatives have created.

"I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way. I do not know the Ambassador, but he is not liked or well thought of in the US.

"We will no longer deal with him.

Mr Trump on his UK visit
AFP/Getty Images

"The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is that they will soon have a new Prime Minister.

"While I thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent State Visit last month, it was the Queen who I was most impressed with!"

Mr Trump's outspoken attack - the most strident public criticism of a British prime minister by a US president in decades - will alarm and dismay Downing Street.

It comes just a month after the Government rolled out the red carpet for the president for a state visit in which he praised the enduring strength of the "special relationship".

Mr Trump and Mrs May speak at the Return Dinner, at Winfield House
PA

Earlier, the Prime Minister's official spokesman insisted that Mrs May had "full faith" in Sir Kim, while distancing No 10 from his assessment of the Trump White House.

"Our ambassadors provide honest, unvarnished assessments of politics in their country, those views are not necessarily the views of ministers or indeed of the Government," the spokesman said.

"This leak is not acceptable. We would expect such advice to be handled in the correct way and a leak inquiry has been launched."

Asked if Mrs May agreed with the contents of Sir Kim's leaked assessment of the Trump administration, the spokesman said: "The PM does not agree with that assessment."

Theresa May and Donald Trump walk through the Quadrangle of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
AFP/Getty Images

In the Commons, there were calls for the police to investigate amid widespread anger at the diplomatic fall-out from the leak.

Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, told MPs he had written to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick to "ask that a criminal investigation also be opened into the leak".

Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan said police could be involved if evidence of wrongdoing over the leak is found, telling the Commons: "If evidence of criminality is found, then yes, the police could be involved."

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