Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has said he would not be the right person to be British ambassador to the US, following the disclosure of sensitive cables from Sir Kim Darroch, the UK’s ambassador to Washington.
Farage told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Well, I’m not a diplomat, and I think that’s quite an understatement.”
On Sunday it emerged that leaked diplomatic messages described Donald Trump’s administration ad “uniquely dysfunctional” and “inept”.
The documents obtained by the Mail on Sunday detail Sir Kim’s assessments of the Trump administration from 2017 to the present.
Hitting back, the US President said Sir Kim had “not served the UK well” and his administration was “not big fans” of the envoy.
A formal inquiry will take place into the leak of the diplomatic telegrams – or diptels – to the UK government.
Pressed on whether he would take the post of ambassador to the US, Farage said: “No. I don’t think I’m the right man for that job.
“But, am I the right man to try and help forge a better, closer relationship in terms of intelligence, security and trade with an administration that contains friends of mine?
“Yes, I could be very useful.”
Farage said: “For Sir Kim Darroch to openly speculate that Trump could be involved with dodgy Russians, and this could make the administration crash and burn… pretty irresponsible.
“No basis of truth in it whatsoever.”
It comes amid reports in the Financial Times that cabinet ministers believe that as PM, Boris Johnson could appoint Farage to the job in Washington.
Cabinet ministers believe Mr Johnson might try to appoint Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit party, to the Washington job — a move which would spark uproar in the Foreign Office. “There are persistent rumours he wants to send Farage there,” confirmed one diplomat.
Farage – who the US President once suggested would make a great ambassador – earlier said Sir Kim was “totally unsuitable for the job and the sooner he is gone the better”.
In the cache of documents, Sir Kim gives a scathing assessment of the White House: “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.”
He questioned whether the White House “will ever look competent”.
Following Trump’s state visit to the UK in June, Sir Kim warned that although the president had been “dazzled” by the pomp and ceremony of the trip, his administration would remain self-interested and “this is still the land of America First”.
In one of the most recent documents, Sir Kim refers to “incoherent, chaotic” US policy on Iran and questions Trump’s publicly stated reason for calling off a retaliatory air strike against Tehran following the downing of an American drone.
The leak was condemned by International Trade Secretary Liam Fox as “unprofessional, unethical and unpatriotic”, according to the BBC.
Mean while, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Sir Kim’s job was to give “frank reports” but the UK’s view was that Mr Trump’s administration was “highly effective”.