Britain’s former man in Washington claims Boris Johnson is “fascinated” by Donald Trump and his relationship “with the facts and the truth”.
Lord Darroch also said the Prime Minister must share the blame for his resignation as ambassador to the US, which followed the leaking of diplomatic cables disparaging the US president.
In a new book serialised in The Times, the former mandarin said Mr Johnson was particularly captivated by Mr Trump’s “limited vocabulary, the simplicity of the messaging, the disdain for political correctness, the sometimes incendiary imagery, and the at best intermittent relationship with facts and the truth”.
In an interview accompanying the excerpts, Lord Darroch - formerly Sir Kim Darroch - was asked if any of those characteristics had rubbed off on Mr Johnson.
“From what I hear from colleagues, this Government pays a lot of attention to presentation, to language,” he replied.
“But if you go back through the current Prime Minister’s history, he’s often said quite striking things. And he never apologises.
“So, Boris might have done this anyway, but certainly, having watched Trump in action, he wouldn’t have been put off.”
Mr Trump had also considered Mr Johnson “a kindred spirit”, according to the former ambassador, who resigned under a cloud of controversy in July 2019 after diplomatic cables were leaked in which he called Mr Trump an “inept” leader.
After Lord Darroch left the diplomatic corps following a distinguished 42-year career, Mr Trump fired back with a range of epithets, calling him “the wacky ambassador”, “pompous”, and “a very stupid guy”.
Lord Darroch resigned the day after Mr Johnson repeatedly refused to say he would keep him in post during a TV debate, and spoke with the then-Conservative leadership candidate by phone.
The ex-diplomat told Mr Johnson the resignation was “in part” his fault. “He [Mr Johnson] said: ‘But why did you resign? Wouldn’t it all have blown over after a few weeks?'” Lord Darroch told the paper.
Meanwhile, reports suggested that Mr Trump broke with modern presidential convention to order his national security adviser John Bolton to “get him [Lord Darroch] out of here” after the cables were published.
Mr Bolton told The Telegraph that he phoned Sir Mark Sedwill, the then most senior Whitehall civil servant, and said “things are going to get worse unless you can figure out how to get him out”.