The senior Conservatives have frantically distanced themselves from Donald Trump after four years of praising the US president as a close ally of Britain, including giving him a state visit three days and two weeks ago, describing l as a great friend of Great Britain.
The Labor Party accused the Conservative Party of not calling on Trump once it became clear a few weeks ago that it refused to accept the outcome of the presidential election. He also accused years-old conservatives of a well-known populist who insulted his allies, treated conspiracy theories and, by treating authoritarians as his natural allies, undermined democracy everywhere.
The Labor Party highlighted interviews in which Boris Johnson said Trump was as worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize as Barack Obama and described him as a standard New York liberal. In 2018, Johnson said: “I admire Donald Trump more and more. I became more and more convinced that there was a method in his madness. “Photographs of Michael Gove, the current cabinet minister and prominent Brexit activist, grinning his thumb with the president, caught the initial mood.
But in a tweet on Wednesday night, Johnson, described as Trump of Great Britain by Trump himself, wrote on Twitter: “Dishonest scenes in the US Congress. The United States represents democracy around the world, and it is now vital that there be an orderly and peaceful transfer of power. “
Her comments, avoiding direct criticism of Trump’s role in inciting violence, sparked a harsh response from former Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry, who wrote on Twitter: “Is that it? Not a word of direct criticism of Trump. No condemnation of incitement. No recognition that this is the culmination of 4 years of division, lying and contempt. 4 years when our own British Trump (as the president called him) behaved like a shameful sycophant ”.
Emily Thornberry
(@EmilyThornberry)That’s it? Not a word of direct criticism of Trump. No condemnation of incitement. No recognition that this is the culmination of 4 years of division, lying and contempt. 4 years when our own British Trump (as the president called him) behaved like a shameful sycophant #Shy https://t.co/uW7E6rWcF3
Thornberry spent two years as a shadow foreign secretary challenging Johnson about his closeness to Trump, warning him that he would make a strategic mistake that would eventually backfire. Shortly after the election results began to be dismissed as fraudulent by Trump, Thornberry urged the government to be more direct in its condemnation.
Perhaps stiffened by criticism, Johnson finally moved on to the late afternoon press conference in Downing Street, when he was directly confronted with the issue. He said: “To the extent that he encouraged people to storm the Capitol and to the extent that the president constantly questioned free and fair elections, I think what the president said about that is completely wrong. I wholeheartedly condemn the encouragement of people to behave shamefully, as they did in the Chapter. “
Until then, the clearest denunciation came from former Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt, who said: “America is the largest, most important democracy in the world, a bright light on the hill for freedom. President Trump told a crowd to go to Capitol Hill and appealed to his vice president for law enforcement. He shames American democracy tonight and causes his friends anguish, but he is not America. “
Hunt has been joined by other former foreign ministers who believe Trump should be removed from the presidency immediately. Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the selective defense commission, accused Trump of “undermining democracy, inciting violence, fueling divisions, and harming what he represents and believes in the nation. Why say this? He has 2 more weeks and will not go quietly. “
Alistair Burt, another former foreign minister, also called for Trump’s immediate removal from office. Instead, his successor, James Cleverly, constrained by his duties, spoke of his suffering on the Washington stage as if the capital had been hit by a natural disaster.
The overall strategy of the British government over time has been that it would be suicidal to give up on Trump and by influencing others around him, such as his son-in-law Jared Kushner, British interests – including a potential free trade agreement – could be protected. after Brexit.
In the process, Britain has absorbed frequent humiliations, including ignoring key diplomatic actions, such as the withdrawal of US troops from northeastern Syria, the US withdrawal from the agreement with Iran, aggression on Huawei’s role in 5G and public criticism of Brexit. Theresei May strategy.
It was a symptom of the relationship and a cause of suffering for many in the foreign office, when Johnson failed to sit next to former British Ambassador to Washington Kim Darroch after critical lines leaked about Trump’s personality. The documents, written in 2017, rightly predicted that the Trump administration would not become less dysfunctional, less unpredictable, less divided by factions, less clumsy diplomatic and inept.
Much of this tolerance was due to the fact that Brexiteers saw Trump’s growth and their own growth coming from the same ideological well. Jacob Rees-Mogg wrote in the Times in 2018 before one of Trump’s visits: “It is our national good fortune that the president with whom we will develop this new arrangement is Mr. Trump. His choice depended on factors similar to those that led to Brexit. He appealed to the voters left behind by the metropolitan elite and exudes confidence in his own nation and his determination not to be a manager of decline, which also inspires Brexiteers. “Britain,” he said, citing former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, could play the role of the Greeks over the Romanians.