Ukip leader says he is flattered by ‘bolt from the blue’ but No 10 says there is no vacancy for key role
The US president-elect, Donald Trump, has suggested that the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, should be the UK’s ambassador to the US.
“Many people would like to see [@Nigel_Farage] represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States,” Trump tweeted on Monday evening. “He would do a great job!”
In a brief call with BBC Breakfast, Farage said he had been awake since 2am UK time when the tweet was first posted.
The Ukip leader said he was flattered by the tweet, calling it “a bolt from the blue” and said he did not see himself as a typical diplomatic figure “but this is not the normal course of events”.
But a Downing Street spokesman said: “There is no vacancy. We already have an excellent ambassador to the US.”
Farage said he had not been expecting Trump’s tweet, but said it was a signal that Downing Street needed to change its thinking about him.
“I can still scarcely believe that he did that though speaking to a couple of his longtime friends perhaps I am a little less surprised,” he wrote in an piece on Tuesday morning for rightwing site Breitbart.
“They all say the same thing: that Trump is a very loyal man and supports those that stand by him.”
Farage said personal relationships were key to how the former business tycoon operated. “Sadly, the cesspit that is career politics understands nothing of this,” he said. “In their world the concept of trust is transitory.”
Farage said it was further evidence a shakeup was needed at the top of politics, with a barely veiled dig at the prime minister. “Those who supported remain now hold senior positions,” he said. “Worst still, those who were openly abusive about Trump now pretend to be his friend. It is career politics at its worst and it is now getting in the way of the national interest.”
Repeating his offer of help, which had been rejected by Downing Street on multiple occasions, Farage said: “The world has changed and it’s time that Downing Street did too.”
It is unprecedented for an incoming US president to ask a world leader to appoint an opposing party leader as ambassador, and the statement puts May in a difficult position.
Speaking in the House of Commons, foreign secretary Boris Johnson said Darroch was a “a first rate ambassador in Washington doing a very good job with the current administration and the administration to be, and there is no vacancy.”Johnson said it was important to be “as positive as we possibly can be about working with the incoming US administration, it is incredibly important to both our country and the world. Judge that new administration by their actions in office, which we hope to shape and to influence.”
Fellow Conservative MP Dan Poulter asked Johnson to stress that those with a character such as Farage’s would not make good ambassadors. “Diplomats require diplomacy,” he told the House. “There should be no place for anyone who expresses inflammatory and what sometimes can be considered to be borderline racist views in representing this country in discussions with the United States.”
Johnson said he thought Poulter “captures the mood of the House” on the issue. “We have already settled that question, there is no vacancy.”
The role of UK ambassador to the US is among the most prestigious in the diplomatic service. Sir Kim Darroch, formerly the UK’s national security adviser and permanent representative to the European Union, took over the role in January.
The Ukip leader has previously said it was “obvious” that Darroch should resign, calling him part of the “old regime”.
But he told Sky News at that time he did not see himself as Darroch’s replacement: “I don’t think I will be the ambassadorial type. Whatever talents or flaws I have got I don’t think diplomacy is at the top of my list of skills.”
Raheem Kassam, the editor-in-chief of Breitbart London and a former aide to Farage, tweeted that he had woken the Ukip leader to tell him the news: “Safe to say he was enormously flattered.”
Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British ambassador to Washington, said he was baffled by the tweet. “UK ambassador in DC exists to defend UK interests in US, not US interests in UK,” he tweeted. “Can’t have foreign presidents deciding who our [ambassador] should be.”David Davis, the Brexit secretary, reiterated Downing Street’s line, telling the BBC: “People can say what they like but the simple truth is there’s no vacancy. The ambassador there is very, very good, as we’ve seen.”
Farage has no diplomatic experience but worked hard to align himself with Trump during the US election campaign.
However, one ally of Farage suggested May could solve a political problem for her party by appointing the Ukip leader, saying it would be an effective way of ending Ukip as a force in British politics.
Trump took to comparing his campaign to that behind the successful call for the UK to leave the EU, often mentioning Farage at his rallies and referring to himself as “Mr Brexit”.
The two met again recently at Trump Tower in New York, and Farage tweeted a picture of the two of them, adding: “It was a great honour to spend time with [Trump]. He was relaxed and full of good ideas. I’m confident he will be a good president.”
At the meeting, Farage spoke to the new president-elect about putting the bust of Winston Churchill back in the Oval Office, while Trump encouraged Farage to oppose wind farms, which he felt marred the views from his Scottish golf courses.
Andy Wigmore, a communications officer for one of the groups campaigning to leave the EU who was at the meeting alongside Farage, told the Daily Express: “We covered a lot of ground during the hour-long meeting we had.
“But one thing Mr Trump kept returning to was the issue of wind farms. He is a complete Anglophile and also absolutely adores Scotland, which he thinks is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
“But he is dismayed that his beloved Scotland has become over-run with ugly wind farms, which he believes are a blight on the stunning landscape.”
Farage is expecting an invitation to Trump’s inauguration in January, sources have told the Guardian, which increases pressure on May to give him a role in UK-US diplomatic relations.
The prime minister is already on the back foot after Farage claimed Trump’s team had raised concerns with him in their meeting about hostile comments made by Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, and May’s joint chiefs of staff about his campaign.
Farage was the first foreign politician to meet Trump after his shock win and offered to act as a go-between for the British government and the US – a suggestion swiftly knocked back by Downing Street, which insisted there was no need for a “third party” in the special relationship
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