Lord Ashcroft moved to further sour relations between the Labour Party and president-elect of the United States by sharing previous comments made about Donald Trump.
Both Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy went on the charm offensive this week after previously saying some pretty frank things about Trump in the past.
Nigel Farage has offered to help straighten out relations, although it’s not likely to be an offer Labour will take up.
But they will have to deploy their best international diplomacy if the “special” relationship between the US and the UK is to continue.
After Kemi Badenoch read out some former quotes during her first Prime Minister’s Questions this week, Lord Ashcroft decided to go one step further by taking to X to post a list of the times Labour have criticised the President – tagging him for good measure.
This dubious take on international diplomacy did not escape comment online.
“A lord of our realm snitching to Trump about his Labour opponent’s historical statements, in a national newspaper. Take that in. It’s incredible.” tweeted one person online.
Some pointed out that maybe the Belize-based billionaire wasn’t best placed to take the moral high ground.
One tweet described him as “The little creep who kicked off the story about Angela Rayner and her none existent tax bill even though he fled the country and revoked his peerage to avoid paying his £112m tax bill.”
Others wondered why only Labour politicians were in the firing line over their comments about Trump.
Boris Johnson once said that ‘“the only reason I wouldn’t visit some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting Donald Trump.”
Lord Ashcroft seems to have forgotten, however, that special relationship survived this, with the two working closely together when Johnson later became Prime Minister.
Related: Ed Davey forgoes congratulatory message and decides to show Trump for who he really is
