New Zealand’s most senior envoy to the UK has lost his job over remarks he made about US President Donald Trump at an event in London this week, New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said yesterday.
Phil Goff, who is New Zealand’s High Commissioner to the UK, made the comments at an event held by international affairs think tank Chatham House in London on Tuesday.
Goff asked a question from the audience of the guest speaker, Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen, in which he said he had been re-reading a famous speech by former British prime minister Winston Churchill from 1938, when Churchill was a lawmaker in the government of then-British prime minister Neville Chamberlain shortly before World War II.
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Churchill’s speech rebuked Britain’s signing of the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler, allowing Germany to annex part of Czechoslovakia.
Goff quoted Churchill as saying to Chamberlain: “You had the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, yet you will have war.”
Goff asked Valtonen: “President 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 New Zealand 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 Chatham House.
Valtonen’s speech was billed as covering Finland’s approach to European security at an event entitled Keeping the peace on NATO’s longest border with Russia.
In response to questions from reporters, Peters said that Goff’s remarks were “disappointing” and made the envoy’s position “untenable.”
“When you are in that position you represent the government and the policies of the day,” Peters said. “You’re not able to free think, you are the face of New Zealand.”
Officials would “work through” with Goff the “upcoming leadership transition” at New Zealand’s mission in London, Peters said.
Goff has been New Zealand’s envoy to the UK since January 2023.
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Officials were “in discussion with High Commissioner Goff about his return to New Zealand,” Peters said in a statement.
Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark — who was Goff’s boss during his time as a lawmaker — denounced his sacking on X, writing that the episode was “a very thin excuse” for removing a “highly respected” former foreign minister from his diplomatic role.
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