Former UK ambassador to US says Boris Johnson ‘now tarred with brush of being a mini-Trump in Europe’

Only similarity between Trump and Johnson is their hair, says Sir Christopher Meyer

A British former diplomat has jumped to Boris Johnson’s defence, saying it is “poor old Boris” who will suffer the consequences of Donald Trump’s fondness for him.

Speaking on talkRadio’s breakfast show on Thursday morning - after a riot in Washington on Wednesday saw pro-Trump insurgents storm the Capitol building and four people die as a result - Sir Christopher Meyer said “British prime ministers cannot be blamed for trying to work with American presidents”.

“It is what you do,” he told the programme’s host Julia Hartley-Brewer, adding: “And in this case, it proved mission impossible.”

Sir Christopher, who served as the UK’s ambassador in Washington from 1997-2003, acknowledged that Mr Trump had “gone too far - even by his own standards” but said it is wrong for UK politicians to now go after Mr Johnson for attempting to “work” with the US president: “Britain’s most important partner and ally”.

“It was right to have invited him to come to this country, it was right for him to have met the Queen, it was right for Boris Johnson to try and get on [good] terms with him,” Sir Christopher said. 

But it was a doomed relationship from the start, he admitted, because Mr Trump is “unfortunately not a man you can ally yourself with” due to his “obsessive compulsive narcissism”. 

Appearing to suggest the two leaders have very little in common, Sir Christopher said that simply “because [Boris Johnson] has more or less the same colour hair as Donald Trump’s - and because Donald Trump said he likes Boris” - the prime minister is now “tarred with a brush of being a mini-Trump in Europe”.

It comes after some critics suggested Mr Johnson was wrong for ever having shown allyship with the outgoing president. Most notably was Greater Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham - one of the first MPs to tweet a reaction to the scenes coming out of the US last night - who appeared to launch a thinly veiled attack on the prime minister in its wake.

“Any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now,” Mr Burnham said, in what has since been regarded as an indirect reference to Mr Johnson.

And the feeling is mutual on the other side of the Atlantic, according to Sir Christopher, who said much of the US press had already disregarded the British prime minister simply because of his supposed chumminess with Mr Trump.

“If you read newspapers in the United States: the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic - mainly Democratic publications,” Sir Christopher said, “they have all condemned Boris before he has even been able to start. Or do anything”.

“And that is simply because he is considered to be an ally of Donald Trump.”

Mr Johnson did respond to the protests on Wednesday night, denouncing the “disgraceful scenes in US Congress”, though he was careful not to chastise Mr Trump.

“The United States stands for democracy around the world and it is now vital that there should be a peaceful and orderly transfer of power,” he said on Twitter.

A slew of UK politicians, on the other hand, attacked the president directly - blaming him for inciting the violence and failing to properly put an end to it.

The SNP’s Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, took to Twitter amid the chaos to say “the end of @realDonaldTrump presidency cannot come quick enough” and called the US president “shameful”.

Meanwhile, former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt accused Mr Trump of telling “a crowd to march on Capitol Hill & turned on his VP for upholding the law”.

“He shames American democracy tonight & causes its friends anguish - but he is not America,” Mr Hunt wrote.