Emails to the US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton from a close confidant portrayed the British prime minister, David Cameron, as snobbish, William Hague as disingenuous and the first coalition government budget as draconian.

The messages from Clinton’s unofficial adviser Sidney Blumenthal paint an unflattering picture of the Conservative politicians taking over from the Gordon Brown government in 2010.

Marked as confidential, Blumenthal writes (pdf) that the popularity of the Liberal Democrats was cratering after the passage of a “draconian Cameron government” budget.

The emails were released under US freedom of information laws after it emerged Clinton had used a personal email account for government business. Clinton is being forced to release the emails in monthly instalments.

In another memo, he delivered a warning to the then US secretary of state about Hague, the incoming foreign secretary, saying he was “deeply anti-European and will be disingenuous with you”.



“On economic policy, the UK is no partner and no bridge to Europe,” Blumenthal wrote.

He also claimed that at no other time since the second world war had the UK and US governments “been at such odds over international economics”.

He compared the manner of Nick Clegg, the former Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister, with that of Cameron, saying Clegg had an “inbred arrogance (from no less a privileged background than Cameron, though seeming less snobbish because he went to Westminster instead of Eton).”

One email, written while coalition talks were still going on, said the senior Labour politician Peter Mandelson was playing a “cynical double game” in an attempt to become foreign secretary.

Clinton responded by saying she had shared the memos with her husband, Bill, the former president, who thought them “brilliant” and adding: “Keep em coming.”

Previous released emails from Blumenthal contained articles from the Guardian and other news outlets, some highlighting Cameron’s inexperience.



One of the Guardian articles shared with Clinton reported how Cameron had incensed France, Germany and Spain in October 2009 over an attempt to scupper the Lisbon treaty.

Clinton described the Guardian article as “so revealing and wacky”. She also speculated that it could boost a then flagging, and ultimately futile, bid by Tony Blair for the EU presidency.