A senior British diplomat in Washington has resigned, saying she did not want to “peddle half-truths” over Brexit for a government she did not trust, CNN reported on Friday.
Britons head to the polls on Thursday for an election that would decide the fate of the UK’s exit from the EU.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives have said they would deliver Brexit by the end of next month, while the opposition Labour Party, which is trailing in the polls, plans to renegotiate the exit deal and put it to another referendum.
Citing a copy of her resignation letter, dated Dec. 3, CNN reported that Alexandra Hall Hall, who had been Brexit Counselor in the British embassy in Washington since last year, said her position had become “unbearable personally and untenable professionally.”
“I have been increasingly dismayed by the way in which our political leaders have tried to deliver Brexit, with reluctance to address honestly, even with our own citizens, the challenges and trade-offs which Brexit involves,” she wrote.
“It makes our job to promote democracy and the rule of law that much harder, if we are not seen to be upholding these core values at home.”
A former British ambassador to Georgia who had worked for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office for 33 years, Hall Hall said her decision to quit had nothing to do with being “for or against Brexit, per se.”
“I am also at a stage in life where I would prefer to do something more rewarding with my time, than peddle half-truths on behalf of a government I do not trust,” she wrote.
Asked during a televised election debate whether it worried him that a leading British diplomat had made such comments, Johnson said: “I don’t know who you’re referring to.”
“What it shows to me is that we need to move on as a country, because there are plenty of people who are irreconcilably opposed to Brexit and I think that actually what we should do is respect the will of the people,” he added.
The office confirmed that Hall Hall had resigned, but a spokeswoman said it would not comment on the detail of an individual’s resignation.
CNN said Hall Hall’s role involved explaining the UK’s approach to Brexit to US politicians and that she felt her diplomatic role had been co-opted to deliver messages that were “neither fully honest nor politically impartial.”
It said she had filed a formal complaint about being asked to convey overtly partisan language on Brexit in Washington.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in