Foreign Office officials have turned on Lord Malloch-Brown, their minister, describing him as a “liability” for the government. Malloch-Brown, a former United Nations official brought into government by Gordon Brown, has fallen out with some diplomats who have dubbed him “Bollock-Brown” for his off-message views. The minister has clashed with David Miliband, the foreign secretary, and caused embarrassment for Brown before the prime minister’s trip to Washington by saying that Britain and America would no longer be “joined at the hip”. Malloch-Brown is said to have been reprimanded by Miliband for suggesting the British government was about to open talks with Hamas and Hezbollah, the Islamic militant groups, and was forced to “clarify” his remarks in the House of Lords, which irritated Labour Friends of Israel, the campaign group.
“Gordon won’t be brave enough to sack him. It would look like the whole thing’s been a mistake, but Malloch-Brown will probably resign in the end because he feels frustrated that he is not getting the recognition and the things done he wanted to,” said a Foreign Office official.
Brown made great play of appointing Malloch-Brown, former chief of staff at the UN, in June as he brought outsiders into his government “of all the talents”. The appointment angered Washington which was aware of his opposition to the Iraq war and hostility towards the “neo-cons” around George W Bush.
Malloch-Brown, who is paid £81,504 a year, has also upset colleagues by strolling into meetings with foreign dignitaries even though he has not been invited. A critique of the minister appeared last week in The Spectator magazine, questioning his continued use of a grace-and-favour apartment in Admiralty House on Whitehall which was once used by John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister. Only two other members of the government — Brown and Alistair Darling, the chancellor — have grace-and-favour homes.
The article quoted Brown as having confided to colleagues that if he “had known it would cause such a fuss, I wouldn’t have appointed him”. It added that Malloch-Brown is “viewed in Washington as viscerally anti-American”. Foreign Office officials and allies of Miliband thought the article “bang on”.
From the comments section at link:
Living among Americans as I do, I can say quite authoritatively that Lord Malloch-Brown [has] replaced George Galloway as Britain's greatest embarrassment among the Yanks!
Talk about "bang on"! LOL