David Lammy’s decision to brand Donald Trump a ‘neo-Nazi’ was ‘not wise’ and will not be forgotten, a former US ambassador has warned.
Billionaire businessman Woody Johnson, who served as Mr Trump’s ambassador to the UK during his first term in office, said Labour would have to work hard to repair relations if he wins a second term.
He also warned that the UK would have to break decisively with EU regulations on sectors like agriculture to secure a significant trade deal with the US.
During his time in London, Mr Johnson met with senior figures in Labour, then led by Jeremy Corbyn with Sir Keir Starmer as shadow Brexit secretary.
In an interview with the Spectator magazine, he said: ‘I met Keir Starmer and yeah, they did not like Trump.
‘Keir Starmer is better at holding it…’ He pauses. ‘But I would try to keep the emotion out, to be practical and try to get to know in a new and different way what one of your former colonies, what’s going on.
‘George III, he came to his senses in 1783 when he told his people to give the Americans what they want.’
Mr Johnson suggested that Mr Lammy, the current Foreign Secretary, might face particular difficulties after launching a series of direct attacks on Mr Trump, including speaking at a rally protesting the then-president’s visit to the UK in 2018.
In the same year, he described Mr Trump as a ‘tyrant in a toupee’, writing in Time magazine: ‘Trump is not only a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath.
‘He is also a profound threat to the international order that has been the foundation of Western progress for so long.’
In 2019, he mocked Mr Trump for complaining that there had been ‘no President in the history of our country who has been treated so badly as I have’.
Mr Lammy responded: ‘Four US presidents have been assassinated, snowflake.’
The Foreign Secretary has been working to patch up relations with senior Republicans in recent months.
But Mr Harrison said his previous slurs would not be forgotten.
‘I think people will remember all those comments,’ he said. ‘It’s a question of how do you recover from them.
‘That was not a wise comment. But those things happen in politics… there’s always a way to recover if you want.’
Mr Johnson said that Mr Trump was likely to raise the Nato spending target ‘higher’ than the current two per cent of GDP if he wins a second term, adding: ‘I don’t think he thinks it’s fair, and he said this, that the American people fight the battles that are, basically, European battles. You guys should be fighting those.’
And he warned that a trade deal with the US would require the UK to break with EU agriculture rules, which have largely been followed since Brexit.
‘I think it kind of depends on the UK and how they look at themselves regarding Europe,’ he said.
‘If the rules and regulations on food and everything else, the standards are the way they are now, you’re not going to get a trade deal, I don’t think.’
With Sir Keir seeking a closer agreement with the EU on agricultural standards as part of a wider ‘reset’ of relations, Mr Johnson’s comments suggest the Government may struggle to secure a trade deal with President Trump.