LONDON — The British government brushed aside Brexiteer Nigel Farage’s offer to help build diplomatic relations with Donald Trump.
Farage is a longstanding ally of the U.S. president-elect and spent election night at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Despite being a political opponent to Britain’s center-left Labour government as leader of the Reform UK party, Farage has said he would be willing to help build bridges with the U.S. for the U.K.’s “future survival.”
But that offer was given short shrift by Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden Thursday.
“I think we’ll have our own relationships,” McFadden told Times Radio. “The good thing about our friendship with the United States is it’s not based on any single individual, it’s much deeper than that.”
He added: “‘Hasn’t he got a job working for the people of Clacton that he was recently elected to a few months ago?” McFadden told ITV, in reference to Farage’s day job as a member of parliament.
Labour’s beef with Donald Trump goes way back. Long before taking office, Foreign Secretary David Lammy — Britain’s top diplomat — labeled Trump a “neo-Nazi sympathizing sociopath” and “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathizer.”
Even before taking power in a landslide in July, Labour worked to build bridges with Team Trump. Prime Minister Keir Starmer congratulated Trump Wednesday and said “the U.K.-U.S. special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come.”
Farage has previously talked himself up as Britain’s next ambassador in Washington, an offer the U.K. government is all-but-certain to refuse as it mulls over who will occupy the crucial diplomatic post.
