Nigel Farage could be ambassador to US if Trump wins, says ex-foreign secretary

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Nigel Farage could be the subsequent UK ambassador to the US if Donald Trump wins the presidency, ex-foreign secretary David Owen has stated.

Lord Owen stated appointing the ex-Brexit Party chief to the job to assist hold Mr Trump onside was “not a totally outrageous suggestion”.

The former cupboard minister stated Mr Farage could initially be despatched out to Washington to assist persuade the Republican to hold the US inside Nato if he wins a second time period.

Lord Owen – Labour overseas secretary between 1977 and 1979 – stated if might even be obligatory to hand the hard-right politician one of many nation’s prime diplomatic roles.

“We’d better send old Farage out there to persuade Trump [about Nato],” he advised the News Agents podcast. “I would certainly.”

He added: “I would hope it could be done without making him ambassador, as some people have suggested – but it’s not a totally outrageous suggestion.”

Mr Farage beforehand claimed that he “could be very useful” when the concept of him changing into ambassador to the US got here up upon Sir Kim Darroch’s resignation in 2019.

When making ready to enter the White House, Mr Trump claimed that his pal would do a “great job” within the position. The then-Brexit Party chief raised eyebrows by assembly the president-elect at Trump Tower throughout the interim interval in November 2016.

Lord Owen – who stop Labour within the early Nineteen Eighties to type a rival get together that ultimately grew to become the Liberal Democrats –stated his American spouse was satisfied Mr Trump was going to win November’s presidential election.

He additionally known as on Joe Biden to make manner for an additional Democrat to run in opposition to the Republican favorite. “He’s got a few more months, but he should say to the people, ‘I’m getting a bit old, we need a vigorous thing.

“And the Democrat Party ought to have an open nomination conference and elect somebody who is more vigorous and will beat Trump.”

It comes as Boris Johnson stated a second Trump presidency could be a “big win for the world”. In his newest Mail column, the previous PM mocked the “hysteria” in Britain concerning the prospect of Mr Trump’s return to the White House.

He mocked Church of England, the BBC and “much of the UK establishment” for a “caterwauling orgy of nose-holding abhorrence” – claiming Trump’s success within the polls had “driven some people to the brink of virtue-signalling derangement”.

Mr Johnson stated his previous ally was not a “would-be dictator”, regardless of his position in inciting a riot which noticed the unprecedented assault on the US Capitol constructing.

And he claimed that Mr Trump’s “sheer unpredictability” made him an asset in performing as a “major deterrent to the enemies of the west” – claiming the republican wouldn’t flip his again on Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Lord Owen criticised Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation plan – however predicted that the UK would go away the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Strasbourg court docket which oversees the settlement.

Asked whether or not he believes that the UK might need to withdraw from the ECHR, Lord Owen stated: “Yes, because they are now telling us how to conduct our immigration policy.”

He added: “And they’re using powers that have never been used before just recently on our immigration policy… It’s like all these human rights and lawyer things. You give lawyers a yard, they’ll take a mile.”

Lord Owen stated David Cameron took the job as overseas secretary as a result of he was “bored”. And he stated he had “reservations” about Labour chief Keir Starmer as a result of “I don’t like his record”.

He cited Sir Keir’s determination to work underneath Jeremy Corbyn, and speaking a number one position in “trying to stop the [Brexit] referendum decision being passed by the House of Commons”.