New Zealand’s most senior diplomat in London loses job over Trump remark

Wellington: New Zealand’s most senior envoy to the United Kingdom has lost his job over remarks he made about US President Donald Trump at an event in London this week, New Zealand’s foreign minister said.

Phil Goff, who is high commissioner to the UK, made the comments at an event held by the international affairs think tank Chatham House in London on Tuesday.

Phil Goff has lost his job as New Zealand high commissioner to the UK.Credit: Getty Images

Goff, a former New Zealand opposition leader and Auckland mayor, asked a question from the audience of the guest speaker, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, in which he said he had been re-reading a famous speech by former British wartime leader Winston Churchill from 1938, when Churchill was an MP in the government of led by Neville Chamberlain.

Churchill’s speech rebuked Britain’s signing of the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler, which allowed Germany to annex part of Czechoslovakia. Goff quoted Churchill as saying to Chamberlain: “You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war.”

Goff then asked Valtonen: “President [Donald] Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?”

As the audience chuckled at the envoy’s question, Valtonen said she would “limit myself” to saying that Churchill “has made very timeless remarks”, according to video of the event published by New Zealand news outlets.

The Winston Churchill bust has been returned to the Oval Office by US President Donald Trump.Credit: AP

Valtonen’s speech was billed as covering Finland’s approach to European security at an event titled: “Keeping the peace on NATO’s longest border with Russia”.

Made aware of the comments by Wellington newspaper The Post, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ office said the “deeply disappointing” comments made his position “untenable” as they did not represent the views of the New Zealand government.

“It is seriously regrettable,” Peters said, “and a seriously disappointing decision one has to make.”

“If he’d have made that comment about Germany, France, Tonga or Samoa then I would have been forced to act.

“It’s not the way you behave as the front face of the country, diplomatically.”

He said he’d asked the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Bede Corry, to now work through with Goff “the upcoming leadership transition at the New Zealand High Commission in London.”

Goff has been New Zealand’s envoy to the UK since January 2023. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Former NZ prime minister Helen Clark, said on social media it was “a very thin excuse for sacking a highly respected former #NZ Foreign Minister from his post”.

“I have been at Munich Security Conference recently where many draw parallels between Munich 1938 & US actions now,” she wrote.

AP, AAP

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