British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is standing up for the UK ambassador to Washington and outgoing PM Theresa May, calling US President Donald Trump’s comments “disrespectful and wrong” as part of a bid to become PM himself.

Trump had lit into the British government after the publication of secret dispatches from Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch, who called the US president, “incompetent,” “inept,” and “clumsy,” among other things.

On Tuesday, Hunt fired back on Twitter, saying the ambassador’s comments were private and that allies needed to treat each other with respect.

1/2 @realDonaldTrump friends speak frankly so I will: these comments are disrespectful and wrong to our Prime Minister and my country. Your diplomats give their private opinions to @SecPompeo and so do ours! You said the UK/US alliance was the greatest in history and I agree... https://t.co/hNeBWmyyVN — Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) July 9, 2019

2/2...but allies need to treat each other with respect as @theresa_may has always done with you. Ambassadors are appointed by the UK government and if I become PM our Ambassador stays. — Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) July 9, 2019

Trump’s tweet was “disrespectful and wrong to our PM and my country,” Hunt said. “Ambassadors are appointed by the UK government and if I become PM our Ambassador stays.”

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May resigned at the beginning of June over her inability to negotiate a British exit from the European Union, and is currently acting as a caretaker PM. Hunt is hoping to replace her as the head of the Conservative Party, but he lost the vote among the Tory members of Parliament to Boris Johnson – whom Trump has spoken of approvingly – and is waiting for the results of the party membership vote, due by July 22.

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