How do we fix the fallout from the never-ending Kim Darroch affair? Put him in the House of Lords

We’re short of peers with the kind of foreign policy experience that the former US ambassador has. Putting him in the Lords would send a signal to Trump that his attack has had no impact on British public opinion

In her last moments in office, Theresa May has an easy solution to the Sir Kim Darroch affair. Put him in the House of Lords and leave the question of his successor to her successor.

A personal confession here. I worked with Darroch in my eight years in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) under Tony Blair and afterwards as Blair’s political envoy to Europe. He was head of the news department, which may sound just like a high-end press officer, but is actually one of the most senior FCO appointments.

Handling the news presentation of problems like the continuing imprisonment of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after Boris Johnson falsely said she was working training journalists – a red rag to the Britain-suspicious Iranians – and other mistreatment of British citizens is a top FCO priority. In office meetings with both Robin Cook and Jack Straw, a huge amount of time was devoted to managing the FCO message and of course their own profile and status.

Darroch was calm, professional and much liked by journalists. He was completely straight and “did friendly” much better than FCO Old Etonian or Wykehamist effortless superiority. Over the years in his company, I never heard him say anything party political. He served the government of the day to the best of his ability,

He was then our man in Brussels after a stint as Blair’s No 10 Europe adviser in the later years, when the Blair star in Europe dimmed after Iraq and his opportunistic pledge of a referendum on the EU constitution – the first promise by a British prime minister to go down the road of a populist plebiscite on Europe.

Following that, he was called back by David Cameron to be national security adviser, again one of the most sensitive top government jobs, reserved for the safest of safe hands, his last posting was Washington.

This is the Foreign Office’s most prestigious overseas embassy job and only goes to the best diplomat of his generation. His reports back to the FCO in 2017 with the actually rather obvious remarks about President Trump would have been read by the then foreign secretary, Johnson, in his red box of papers taken home every night. His political team would have seen them too, as well as political aides in Downing Street.

It is no problem to photocopy such documents and the hopes that Scotland Yard can find an email trail to reveal the leaker through its recently launched investigation are not realistic. Nor are the attempts to class reporting on the leaks as a “criminal matter”, as Neil Basu, assistant commissioner, suggested on Saturday to much criticism.

No 10, and more broadly the British state establishment, certainly owe Sir Kim. His prompt resignation when Johnson failed to support him stopped the story dead. The media firestorm kept alive by President Trump’s continuing attacks on Darroch relegated the Tory leadership contest off all front pages until Johnson refused to back Darroch in his ITV debate with Jeremy Hunt. He has behaved with nothing but honour and dignity since.

Putting him in the Lords would send a signal to President Trump that his coarse, bullying vulgarity in attacking Darroch has had no impact on the government and British public opinion. Rather the opposite. Darroch would be seen as having been rewarded and honoured by Britain.

The House of Lords is short of peers with the kind of recent foreign policy experience that Darroch has. Other than William Hague, who was always seen abroad as the promoter of hostility to Europe since his leadership of the Conservative Party, no recent foreign secretary like Sir Malcolm Rifkind or Jack Straw has been put in the Lords.

There are relatively few lords with hands-on, recent experience of doing foreign policy. The House of Commons, overwhelmed by Brexit since June 2016, has given up on serious international policy debates, with rent-a-quote MPs taking most of their lines from the press or single-issue outfits like those in favour of Palestine, Putin’s Kremlin line, or the well-financed Arab lobby in parliament.

Lord Darroch would raise the quality of foreign policy debate in Westminster, put Trump in his place, and remind Johnson that if he wants loyalty from senior officials if he enters No 10, he must show he can give it in return.

Denis MacShane was a Labour MP for 18 years and worked for eight years at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as parliamentary private secretary and minister