Boris Johnson Has "No Responsibility Except For Himself", Says Dominic Grieve

13 July 2019, 08:45

Dominic Grieve hits out Tory leadership hopeful Boris Johnson for not supporting British ambassador Sir Kim Darroch after emails critical of the Trump administration were leaked to the media.

The Conservative leadership contender admitted he should have been more supportive of Sir Kim Darroch, and acknowledged that his refusal to explicitly back the ambassador had been a factor in his decision to step down.

The ambassador said his position had become "impossible" after the US President denounced him as a "very stupid guy" and a "pompous fool" on Twitter, and announced his resignation.

The Metropolitan Police has since launched a criminal investigation into the leaking of his communications, which described the Trump administration as "inept" and "uniquely dysfunctional".

But former Attorney General and Conservative MP Dominic Grieve said Mr Johnson missed a "perfectly easy" opportunity to support the ambassador and instead chose "quite deliberately" not to.

Speaking to Andrew Pierce on LBC, Mr Grieve said: "I think we're heading for a very bad place with Boris Johnson and that for me was quite a defining moment of an individual who has no responsibility except to himself.

"And ultimately he will do whatever he happens to think at any given moment is in his own interest.

"He was given a perfectly easy opportunity to say: 'I'm sorry about this, he's an excellent ambassador and has my support', which we ought to give him because he is undoubtedly a superb ambassador and a very good civil servant, and he chose quite deliberately not to."

Watch in full above.