LONDON — After several days of intense criticism by President Trump, who called the British ambassador to Washington a “pompous fool” and said his administration would no longer work with him, Kim Darroch on Wednesday resigned his post.
Darroch had become embroiled in controversy after a cache of secret diplomatic cables were leaked to a British tabloid over the weekend. The memos from Darroch described the Trump as “insecure” and said that the administration was “inept” and “dysfunctional.”
Trump reacted by tweeting that Darroch was “wacky” and “a very stupid guy” and “a pompous fool.” Trump went on to insult outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May for her “failed Brexit negotiation.” Trump boasted that he told May how to do the deal, “but she went her own foolish way — was unable to get it done. A disaster!”
May said to Parliament on Wednesday that she told Darroch that it is a “matter of great regret that he has felt it necessary to leave his position.”
“Sir Kim has given a lifetime of service to the United Kingdom and we owe him an enormous debt of gratitude,” she said at the start of Prime Minister’s Questions, the weekly question and answer session in Parliament.
“Good government depends on public servants being able to give full and frank advice,” she said, adding, “I hope the House will reflect on the importance of defending our values and principles, particularly when they are under pressure.”
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, said the comments made by Trump about Darrach were “beyond unfair and wrong” and said that he had given “honorable and good service and he should be thanked for it.”
“The whole House should join together in deeply regretting the feeling that he’s obviously got that he must resign at this moment,” Corybyn said.
At that, the chamber erupted in shouts of “hear! hear!”
In a letter to permanent undersecretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Darroch wrote, “the current situation is making it impossible for me to carry out my role as I would like.”Darroch noted that his tenure was scheduled to last until the end of the year, but he had decided to depart now.
The name-calling between two close allie, took on a heightened tone because May will leave 10 Downing Street in a matter of days, likely to be replaced by former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, according to the polls of the 160,000 Conservative Party members who are doing the selection.
At a debate on Tuesday evening, Johnson declined to criticize Trump for his tweets and would not promise to keep Darroch on the job — as May had done.
But Johnson’s opponent, the current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, said he backed Darroch. After the ambassador’s resignation, Hunt said he was “deeply saddened.”
“Standing up for Britain means standing up for the finest diplomats on the world. It should never have come to this,” he said.
In his letter, Darroch wrote, “I am grateful to all those in the UK and the US, who have offered their support during this difficult few days. This has brought home to me the depth of friendship and close ties between our two countries. I have been deeply touched.”
Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) told CNN, “The leak of this confidential cable has produced an unfortunate flap that has now led to the resignation of a very skilled career foreign servant. I will point out part of what drove this is President Trump taking to Twitter to insult the ambassador, to insult Theresa May, the outgoing prime minister of the United Kingdom.”
Coons said, “I think it’s unfortunate that this latest flap has further accelerated the distance between us.”
The resignation produced shocked reactions among many British politicians and commentators, who lamented the sequence of events that brought Darroch down.
“Make no mistake, the resignation of Sir Kim Darroch is a historic moment and not in a good way, this is an ominous precedent,” tweeted Jim Pickard, Chief Political Correspondent for the Financial Times.
The executive editor for HuffPost UK, meanwhile, said that the resignation came after Darroch realized that Johnson would not back him, according to colleagues.
Karla Adam and Jennifer Hassan in London and John Wagner in Washington contributed to this report.
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