I'd say less, much less. He doesn't respect the constitution, and he'd sell out American interests in a heartbeat for personal gain or a tickle on the tummy from Putin.
We can say that stuff of course, because we're small fry blowhard 'keyboard warriors' in an echo chamber,, but if Trump does win, as with every other country as far as possible, it behoves those in ambassadorial & diplomatic roles to be rather more circumspect. In particular, the role of Foreign Secretary. Who have we got? David Lammy, who is to foreign affairs what the Titanic was to luxury cruising.
His first test will come on Nov 5 with the US Presidential Elections, when Donald Trump may well be re-elected to the White House.
Lammy, in the past, has described Mr Trump as: "a woman-hating neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath” and “no friend of Britain”. We might think that, he clearly does, but he shouldn't blurt it out to the media. If Trump wins, it will be Lammy’s job to make sure the Republican is a friend of Britain and smooth over the Trump camp’s fury about Labour Activists campaigning in America for Kamala Harris.
Well good luck with that.
Two days later on Nov 7, the Foreign Secretary is due to attend a meeting of the European Political Community, the 47-member group set up in 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It will be hosted by Hungary, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly been the subject of Lammy’s ire in the past. In 2018 the Labour MP described Mr Orban as: “far-Right, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic”. In the same year, he accused Theresa May of making “a deal with the devil” when Tory MEPs backed Mr Orban in a crucial European Parliament vote.
In 2020 he accused Mr Orban of “dismantling democracy” in Hungary and said it was “dangerous” for Boris Johnson’s government to support him. Then in 2021, Lammy accused Boris Johnson of having ‘Twisted priorities’ by hosting the Hungarian leader at No 10.
Alicia Kearns, the shadow foreign affairs minister and former chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, is among those who fear that Mr Lammy’s past comments will damage Britain’s foreign relations. She told The Telegraph: “Building strong diplomatic ties with our international partners is the main responsibility of any foreign secretary.
“So how will David Lammy - who Keir Starmer hand-picked for the job - build these ties when he’s spent years actively attacking Orban, calling for people to ‘resist’ him, describing him as ‘dangerous’? “These comments are the stuff of sixth form debate – he can’t just distance himself by claiming they were acceptable because he was in opposition.”
Nor is Mr Orban the only European politician the Foreign Secretary has insulted.
Matteo Salvini, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister, has previously been accused of racism by Lammy. In 2018 he said: “Salvini previously called for racial segregation on buses. This is nothing less than extreme, old-school racism.” Then in 2019, Lammy said Mr Salvini was “spreading far-Right conspiracy theories about Europe becoming an ‘Islamic caliphate’. Remember Nigel Farage is his friend and ally.”
None of these comments are likely to endear him to Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, who appointed Mr Salvini as her deputy.
Ms Meloni will be among those attending a Nato summit in The Hague next June, as will Mr Orban and possibly, Donald Trump.
Lammy has, in the past, called on the UK to “hear and listen” to demands from Caribbean nations for Britain to pay reparations for the slave trade. His comments were thrown in Sir Keir’s face when he arrived at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa this week. A draft communique prepared by diplomats ahead of the gathering called for “discussions on reparatory justice with regard to the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans,” a topic which the UK did not want to be included in the document.
In February 2019, Lammy criticised Stacey Dooley for photographs she posted on social media of her trip to Uganda for Comic Relief, and said: "the world does not need any more white saviours", and that she was: "perpetuating 'tired and unhelpful stereotypes' about Africa". The donations received for the Red Nose Day broadcast in March 2019 fell by £8 million and the money raised that year was the lowest since 2007, which some blamed on Lammy's remarks. Following this, in October 2020, Comic Relief announced it would no longer send celebrities to Africa nor portray Africa with images of starving people or critically ill children.
Anyone less suited to the role of Foreign Secretary would be hard to imagine.
