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PMQs: Theresa May implicitly criticises Boris Johnson for failing to back Kim Darroch – live news PMQs: Theresa May implicitly criticises Boris Johnson for failing to back Kim Darroch – live news
(32 minutes later)
McDonald says the Foreign Office will pursue who was responsible for this leak with all means at its disposal.
And he says diplomats must continue to give frank advice to London. But he will urge people to think again about what can be done to ensure their communications are secure, he says.
This is from Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former communications chief.
Have known @KimDarroch for years. He worked for Labour, coalition and Tory governments with total professionalism. His career has been sacrificed to the madness of Brexit, the venality of @BorisJohnson and the narcissism of @realDonaldTrump
Back in the committee McDonald says some of the leaked memos were “diptels”, diplomatic telegrams, that are circulated quite widely, and others were email letters, which have a much smaller Whitehall readership.
Here is the full quote from what Sir Alan Duncan, the Foreign Office minister, told the BBC about Boris Johnson.
Boris Johnson - a former foreign secretary and he hopes to be the future prime minister - has basically thrown our top diplomat under the bus,
There are a lot of people in the Commons who are very, very angry and feel that he has lost so much respect for having done what he has done.
His disregard for Sir Kim and his refusal to back him was pretty contemptible and also not in the best interests of the country he is trying to lead ...
Commenting on Johnson’s failure to defend Darroch in the ITV debate last night, Duncan said:
For someone who wants to lead, let alone unite, the country, that was contemptible negligence on his part.
He has basically thrown this fantastic diplomat under the bus to serve his own personal interests.
Q: What is the process for appointing a new ambassador?
McDonald says the standard procedure is for the post to be advertised, candidates to be interviewed, and then decisions taken by the foreign secretary and the prime minister. But that process is not always followed when a new ambassador to Washington is being appointed, he says.
McDonald says Darroch knew that the government was committed to keeping him in place.
But Darroch decided to go anyway, he says.
Sir Simon McDonald, the head of the Foreign Office, has just started giving evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee about the Kim Darroch affairs.
He starts by saying that Darroch decided to resign partly because of the pressure on his family.
And he says that, in his 37 years as a diplomat, he can think of no other example where a friendly government has refused to deal with a serving ambassador, in the way that President Trump said he would refuse to deal with Darroch.
McDonald says there have been occasions where a government has refused to accept a proposed ambassador in the first place.
Q: Has the UK ever had difficulties with America before?
McDonald says the last time there was a problem like this was in 1856, when the Americans objected to the British ambassador recruiting Americans to fight in the Crimean War.
PMQs - Snap verdict: Jeremy Corbyn had a good case to make on legal aid cuts, and he presented it quite well - being only moderately unsettled by Theresa May’s attack over antisemitism - but it was still something of a lost opportunity for him, highlighting how his lack of dexterity at PMQs continues to hold him back. A more strategic leader of the opposition would have prepared questions on Kim Darroch, to drive a wedge between May and the person who will almost certainly be leading her party two weeks’ today and a first-rate parliamentarian would have rewritten the script at the last moment, after Darroch’s resignation was announced, to hammer Boris Johnson with lines we are now hearing from fellow Tories. (See 12.41pm and 12.45pm.) But why should he follow the media, you might ask? Aren’t legal aid cuts more important than the career of one civil servant? Yes they are. (Read the brilliant The Secret Barrister.) But PMQs is a media event, and if Corbyn had chosen go focus on Darroch, he would have got his attack lines into the top of the news bulletins. As it is, his legal aid critique is unlikely to get much further than Facebook. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but you can’t chalk it up as a communications victory.
Boris Johnson has said he regrets the resignation of Kim Darroch. Describing Darroch as “a superb diplomat”, he went on:Boris Johnson has said he regrets the resignation of Kim Darroch. Describing Darroch as “a superb diplomat”, he went on:
I think whoever leaked his diptels (diplomatic telegrams) really has done a grave disservice to our civil servants, to people who give impartial advice to ministers.I think whoever leaked his diptels (diplomatic telegrams) really has done a grave disservice to our civil servants, to people who give impartial advice to ministers.
I hope that whoever it is, is run down, caught and eviscerated, quite frankly, because it is not right that advice to ministers that civil servants must be able to make in a spirit of freedom should be leaked.I hope that whoever it is, is run down, caught and eviscerated, quite frankly, because it is not right that advice to ministers that civil servants must be able to make in a spirit of freedom should be leaked.
It is not right that civil servants’ careers and prospects should be dragged into the political agenda.It is not right that civil servants’ careers and prospects should be dragged into the political agenda.
In PMQs Sir Vince Cable says Theresa May’s last job will be to recommend to the Queen who her successor should be. How will she be sure that that person can command a majority in the Commons?In PMQs Sir Vince Cable says Theresa May’s last job will be to recommend to the Queen who her successor should be. How will she be sure that that person can command a majority in the Commons?
May says, whoever wins the Tory leadership contest, they will make an excellent PM.May says, whoever wins the Tory leadership contest, they will make an excellent PM.
From my colleague Jennifer RankinFrom my colleague Jennifer Rankin
2017: Ivan Rogers resigns after hostile briefing, with no protection from a PM pursuing fantasy Brexit.2019: Kim Darroch resigns after hostile leak, with no backing from a PM candidate pursuing fantasy Brexit.2017: Ivan Rogers resigns after hostile briefing, with no protection from a PM pursuing fantasy Brexit.2019: Kim Darroch resigns after hostile leak, with no backing from a PM candidate pursuing fantasy Brexit.
This is from Peter Ricketts, a former head of the Foreign Office.This is from Peter Ricketts, a former head of the Foreign Office.
Kim has been an outstanding public servant with a distinguished career in the highest-profile jobs. It should not have ended like this. He has been taken out by an act of political sabotage. What does this say about the state of our country? https://t.co/ybgU1QaNSLKim has been an outstanding public servant with a distinguished career in the highest-profile jobs. It should not have ended like this. He has been taken out by an act of political sabotage. What does this say about the state of our country? https://t.co/ybgU1QaNSL
Another senior Tory has criticised Boris Johnson for refusing to stand up for Sir Kim Darroch, This is from Patrick McLoughlin, the former Tory chief whip, who is supporting Jeremy Hunt for the Tory leadership.
It is unedifying to see someone who wants to be prime minister failing to stand up for hard working civil servants, who have done nothing wrong, under attack from foreign governments. Leadership involves standing up for your team. If we don’t call out those who want a witch-hunt through the civil service we are complicit in creating divisions that may never heal.
Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, has put out this statement about Sir Kim Darroch’s resignation.
I am deeply saddened by Sir Kim Darroch’s decision to resign as Her Majesty’s Ambassador in Washington. For 42 years, Sir Kim served his country with the utmost dedication and distinction.
He brought dispassionate insight and directness to his reporting to ministers in London. Whenever I visited Washington as foreign secretary, I was struck by Sir Kim’s professionalism and intellect. I am outraged that a selection of his reports should have been leaked.
I am sure that our ambassadors worldwide will continue to provide the objective and rigorous reporting that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has always prized. I profoundly regret how this episode has led Sir Kim to decide to resign. He deserves to look back upon his career as a servant of Britain with the greatest satisfaction and pride.
Sir Alan Duncan, the Foreign Office minister, has told the BBC that Boris Johnson’s treatment of Kim Darroch was “contemptible”.
Darroch resignation is explosiveSir Alan Duncan, a foreign office minister and Hunt backer, tells BBC:‘Boris Johnson has basically thrown our ambassador under a bus’He says the way Boris treated Sir Kim , by refusing to guarantee his future, is ‘contemptible’
Last night Duncan, who is backing Jeremy Hunt for the Tory leadership, described Johnson as an “utter wimp”. (See 11.07am.)
This is from Dave Penman, the head of the FDA, the union which represents senior civil servants, on Kim Darroch’s decision to resign.
Sir Kim Darroch has been placed in an impossible situation, firstly by the leaking of confidential communiques and then by the failure of Boris Johnson and his supporters to provide unequivocal support.
As a loyal public servant he has, as he always did, put his country first. Can we honestly say that about those who took to the airways and equivocated? Johnson and his allies have sent the clearest signal possible to Sir Kim, the diplomatic corp, the wider civil service and unfortunately to foreign governments: that their professional, impartial advice is needed, but they are ultimately expendable if it proves politically expedient.
And this is from my colleague Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor.
In effect, sacked by Johnson on the orders of Trump. https://t.co/lzXNObl2yk
This is from the Daily Mail’s Jason Groves.
Friends of Sir Kim Darroch say he decided the game was up last night after watching Boris Johnson refuse to back him during live TV debate
This is from Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, on the resignation of Kim Darroch.
It is shameful that Kim Darroch has effectively been forced out for doing the job that diplomats are appointed to do. Boris Johnson’s failure last night to stand up for him - and stand up to the behaviour of Donald Trump - spoke volumes. https://t.co/Cd3Emwmysn
The SNP leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, says every time Theresa May speaks in Scotland, the SNP vote goes up.
He says today is the Srebrenica memorial day.
He says it is a pity that Boris Johnson did not stand up for Kim Darroch yesterday.
Mark Carney says the UK economy is not growing. And Danny Blanchlower says the economy is already in recession, Blackford says. (It sounds like he’s been reading Aditya Chakrabortty’s Guardian column today.)
May says the economy is doing well, but would have been doing even better if the SNP had voted for a Brexit deal.
Blackford says May is driving the UK economy over the cliff. He urges her to take a no-deal Brexit off the table.
May repeats her point about how the SNP could have taken no-deal off the table by voting for her deal. She says forecasts show the Scottish economy is expected to grow more slowly than the economy in the rest of the UK under the SNP.
Here is the full quote from Theresa May earlier on Kim Darroch.
This morning I have spoken to Sir Kim Darroch.
I have told him that it is a matter of great regret that he has felt it necessary to leave his position as ambassador in Washington.
The whole cabinet rightly gave its full support to Sir Kim on Tuesday. Sir Kim has given a lifetime of service to the United Kingdom and we owe him an enormous debt of gratitude.
Good government depends on public servants being able to give full and frank advice.
I want all our public servants to have the confidence to be able to do that and I hope the House will reflect on the importance of defending our values and principles, particularly when they are under pressure.
Corbyn says he is totally committed to tackling racism in any form in the Labour party. Shouldn’t May address Islamophobia in the Conservative party. He says May should listen to what the UN said about the government’s disregard for the rights of disabled people. And he turns to Windrush. Does May agree that that scandal would not have happened if legal aid had not been cut?
May says Corbyn needs to consider his arguments. She has apologised for what happened to the Windrush generation. She says a review found 18 people wrongly deported, but some of those cases happened under Labour. She says Labour claims to back whistleblowers, and yet it uses NDAs. He used to back leave, but now backs remains. He lives up to the words of Marx, not Karl but Groucho - “Those are my prinicples. If you don’t like them, I’ve got others.”
Corbyn says he will not take lectures from May. Her party consorts with racists in the European parliaments. He says legal aid cuts have disproportionately affected the poor and the disabled. Millions are denied access to justice because they are poor. Isn’t that a burning injustice?
May says Corbyn can try to avoid the antisemitism issue. She quotes the former Labour general secretary saying that one day Labour may be anti-racist, but not today. She attacks Labour for wanting to to tax more. Labour used to have a slogan, “Education, education, education.” Now it is just, “Tax, tax, tax.”