There’s a new way of testing if someone is genuinely committed to the ideal of national sovereignty. Let’s call it the Darroch Test.
Will you stand up to any foreign leader who arrogantly presumes the right to tell Britain who its ambassadors overseas should be? Or will you cave in to that foreign leader and effectively let him or her dictate the make-up of Britain’s diplomatic corps?
That’s the Darroch Test. That’s the new national sovereignty test. And, sadly, many Brexiteers, the people who are meant to be standing up for the sovereign rights of the British nation against foreign oligarchies and bureaucratic bullies, have failed it.
Yes, this concerns Kim Darroch, who resigned today as ambassador to the United States. An unscrupulous leak revealed cables in which Mr Darroch referred to President Donald Trump’s administration as ‘inept’ and ‘dysfunctional’ and said its policy on Iran was ‘incoherent’.
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Who could disagree with these assessments? Even Boris Johnson — whose failure to defend Darroch this week apparently convinced Darroch he had no choice but to step down — has accused Trump of ‘stupefying ignorance’.
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