Article content continued

A statement from May’s office Monday said the leaks “do not reflect the closeness of, and the esteem in which we hold, the relationship.”

The statement said Darroch retains the prime minister’s “full support,” and a spokesman stressed that May did not share in her ambassador’s critiques.

Nick Boles, an independent lawmaker in Parliament, said, “The President has been grossly offensive to Her Majesty’s Government. Anyone who wants to be Prime Minister must stand up to bullying, whatever the source.”

But May is on her way out — shoved from power by her own party for her failure to deliver Brexit. And so there was speculation in British political circles about whether the leak might have been designed to push the Europhile Darroch out of Washington before his term is up in 2020, to be replaced by someone more to Trump’s liking when a new prime minister forms a new government later this month.

Trump’s string of tweets have sparked a backlash in Britain by those who say that the U.S. president has no business deciding who is – or isn’t – the British ambassador in Washington.

William Hague, the former foreign secretary, told the BBC: “You can’t change an ambassador at the demand of a host country. It is their job to give an honest assessment of what is happening in that country.”

Christopher Meyer, former British ambassador to Washington, told the broadcaster that British ambassadors around the world will be looking at the controversy and may conclude that they should change practices.