Trade minister says Kim Darroch is ‘held in high regard’ as Farage calls for his sacking

Britain’s ambassador to the US has done nothing wrong and is held in high regard, the international trade secretary, Liam Fox, has said following the leak of confidential internal memos that gave an unflattering portrait of Donald Trump.

The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, added that while he did not agree with all of Kim Darroch’s comments, it was vital that diplomatic staff “feel that they are able to express those frank views”.

The US president said Darroch had “not served the UK well” by dispatching memos to officials in London in which Trump’s White House was described as “uniquely dysfunctional” and “inept”.

Fox said he was “really appalled” by the leak, in which selections of Darroch’s comments in a series of briefings sent to London over the past two years were published in the Mail on Sunday.

Criticising the leaker, he said: “They’re unprofessional, they’re unethical, and they’re unpatriotic.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Liam Fox has defended Kim Darroch. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/REX/Shutterstock

Fox dismissed the idea pushed by people including Nigel Farage, the Brexit party leader, that Darroch’s memos meant he was an impediment to a post-Brexit trade deal with the US and should be removed.

Darroch “is held in high regard” in the US, said Fox, speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme from Washington, where he is holding talks. “It’s not a problem with the ambassador. This a problem with the ethics of the individual who carried out this particular leak,” he said.

“If people start to want to leak confidential information, leaving aside whether or not it may be a criminal activity, it certainly makes it much more difficult to be able to have the bond of trust within which we can operate in an optimal way.”

Fox continued: “This is such a damaging, potentially damaging, event, that I hope the full force of our internal discipline, or even the law, will come down on whoever actually carried out this particular act.”

Play Video 0:33 Donald Trump: 'We're not big fans' of UK ambassador to US – video

The Foreign Office has ordered an inquiry into the leaking of the cables. Asked about the memos on Sunday night, Trump said: “The ambassador has not served the UK well, I can tell you that. We are not big fans of that man.”

Hunt, speaking at a press conference at the Foreign Office, said he did not personally endorse the views expressed in the memos.

He said: “It’s a personal view and there will be many people in this building who don’t agree with that view and indeed I don’t agree with some of the views that we saw in those letters.

“I think the US administration is highly effective and we have the warmest of relationships and a partnership based on standing up for shared values.”

Hunt added the basis for a successful diplomatic service was “the free exchange of information and opinions, and the understanding that we’re not always going to agree with each other but we want to know what people around the world are thinking”.

Play Video 1:34 Jeremy Hunt says Trump administration is highly effective – video

Speaking to Today earlier Farage said the incident showed the need for “major civil service reform” and a purge of senior ranks to install officials more sympathetic to Trump and to Brexit.

“I’m afraid with our civil service, our Foreign Office, everybody stayed in place, it was obvious to all that these were people who in many ways did not accept the results of those elections,’” Farage said, adding the new US ambassador should be “a retired business figure, something like that”.

Farage said a future Boris Johnson government would be expected to remove the ambassador: “If you take Boris at his word, people like Kim Darroch simply shouldn’t be around.”

Michael Fallon, the former defence secretary who is backing Johnson to succeed Theresa May, said Darroch was a “fine public servant” and resisted calls for him to go.

Fallon told Today: “Happily, Nigel Farage is not appointing the next government. That would be entirely a matter for Boris Johnson, if and when he is elected leader of the Conservative party and is appointed prime minister. And my very clear understanding is he has not made any offers of jobs to anybody.”

He added: “We should remind ourselves that ambassadors are paid to report fairly on the strengths and weaknesses of foreign governments, and there certainly were weaknesses when the Trump government originally came into office.”