The first small tremors were felt in Whitehall nine days ago, when The Mail on Sunday contacted the Foreign Office to say that we were in possession of Sir Kim Darroch’s dynamite memos.
At first, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s officials reacted with misplaced sang froid. ‘Our team in Washington have strong relations with the White House and we have no doubt that these will withstand such mischievous behaviour,’ a spokesman said coolly.
That assessment is likely to prove accurate about Britain’s long-term close relationship with the US – but not for the unfortunate Sir Kim.
Shortly after his Oval Office briefing, President Trump launched his first Twitter tirade on Sir Kim: ‘I do not know the Ambassador, but he is not liked or well thought of within the US,’ he wrote. ‘We will no longer deal with him.’
Despite their unruffled public stance, the Foreign Office immediately contacted Downing Street and Mrs May, who was in her Maidenhead constituency, was soon made aware of the situation. It was agreed that No 10 should circle the wagons around Sir Kim, because it was his job to provide an ‘honest, unvarnished’ assessment of the situation in America.
Media all over the world reported the Ambassador’s unguarded comments, which gave a rare insight into the workings of the Trump Administration. All eyes were now on the reaction from the White House.
With Washington empty for the Fourth of July weekend, President Trump was staying with his family at his 600-acre Bedminster resort in New Jersey.
There, as his most senior allies gathered inside the Trump National Golf Club’s vast Georgian revival clubhouse, they circulated the story between them on WhatsApp within minutes of it first appearing on MailOnline. Mr Trump’s son, Don Jnr, reacted ‘furiously’ to the story, a Washington source said.
The first sign of trouble came when Arthur Schwartz, a long time ‘fixer’ for Don Jnr broke cover to tweet his disgust with Sir Kim. At the same time Raheem Kassam, a former aide of Nigel Farage who is now a Washington-based Trump activist, was flagging up the story online.
Britain’s Ambassador to Washington Sir Kim Darroch claimed that Donald Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal as an act of ‘diplomatic vandalism’ to spite his predecessor Barack Obama
The President was first made aware of the row early on Sunday; his first public mention came during a short ‘huddle’ with journalists as he boarded Air Force One at Morristown airport on his way back to Washington later that day. ‘The Ambassador has not served the UK well, I can tell you that… And I can say things about him, but I won’t bother,’ he said.
His promise to stay quiet did not survive a visit to the White House by State Department officials on Monday morning, where they briefed Mr Trump in full on The Mail on Sunday’s revelations.
Back in London, Mrs May had ordered supportive messages to be sent to Sir Kim, assuring him that his job was safe: her time in No 10 has been bedevilled by leaks, and she was determined that the culprit should not claim a ‘scalp’.
Mr Trump’s son, Don Jnr, reacted ‘furiously’ to the story, minutes after it was published on the Mail Online
At the same time, officials at the UK Embassy in Washington were insisting to the White House that Sir Kim had said ‘lots of positive things about the President too’.
However, our diplomatic efforts were being undermined by hardliners in Trump’s Administration who were urging him to ‘go nuclear’ against Sir Kim. Shortly after his Oval Office briefing, Trump launched his first Twitter tirade: ‘I do not know the Ambassador, but he is not liked or well thought of within the US,’ he wrote. ‘We will no longer deal with him.’
The storm grew when Sir Kim was disinvited to a White House dinner that evening, with the President returning to Twitter early on Tuesday morning: ‘The wacky Ambassador that the UK foisted upon the United States is not someone we are thrilled with, a very stupid guy,’ he wrote,
By Tuesday afternoon, beleaguered Sir Kim was still emailing friends in London valiantly insisting he would ‘be fine’.
Boris Johnson insisted that his refusal to endorse Sir Kim during his televised debate with Jeremy Hunt had been misinterpreted
But others in Whitehall were not so sure. One senior Minister told The Mail on Sunday: ‘If Sir Kim had been half as plugged into Washington as he claims, then he would have known the way the wind was blowing and resigned on Sunday morning. His arrogance that he could tough it out in the face of the inevitable Trump storm was ill-conceived.’
Wednesday morning – the day of Sir Kim’s resignation – dawned with Downing Street still expecting him to stay in his post: at No 10’s critical 8.30am meeting, no mention was made of his resignation. But by mid-morning London time, Sir Kim had concluded that his position was untenable: Mrs May had just enough time to prepare a statement to deliver at noon at Prime Minister’s Questions, just after the news had broken.
One senior Minister told The Mail on Sunday: ‘If Sir Kim had been half as plugged into Washington as he claims, then he would have known the way the wind was blowing and resigned on Sunday morning.’
At the time, Boris Johnson was being interviewed in a London pub as part of his leadership campaign. He returned to one of his two campaign headquarters, where he received a text from Sir Kim. A 15-minute conversation followed, during which Mr Johnson paid tribute to the outgoing Ambassador for his decades of public service.
Mr Johnson insisted that his refusal to endorse him during his televised debate with Mr Hunt the previous evening had been misinterpreted and said he had been evasive as he did not want to ‘politicise the Civil Service’. Members of Mr Johnson’s campaign blame Jeremy Hunt’s team for ‘whipping up’ the anger for political gain.
Sir Kim is understood to have told Mr Johnson that he had realised that his ‘time was up’ when Trump announced that he would no longer do business with him; that view was reinforced when he watched a recording of the debate and realised how political the issue had become.
But relations have been strained between Mr Johnson and Sir Kim for some time, dating back to a visit Mr Johnson made to Washington two years ago as Foreign Secretary.
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu made an extraordinary plea on Friday for the leaker to ‘turn themselves in’
An official who was then – but not now – working for Boris broke into the British Embassy at 2am after a long drinking session: he climbed over the wall and into his bedroom, where he was violently sick, to the horror of Sir Kim and his team.
The relationship has also been soured by the leak of another diplomatic memo by Sir Kim in 2016 which revealed his unflattering views of the Trump Administration – a leak which Foreign Office officials believed, without providing any evidence, originated from within Mr Johnson’s then team.
Sir Kim’s resignation on Wednesday enraged civil servants and diplomats across Whitehall, leading to the investigation into the current leak being ramped up.
By Thursday morning, more than 320 people had been contacted about the breach, and a shortlist of four suspects had been drawn up.
But as Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu was making his extraordinary plea on Friday for the leaker to ‘turn themselves in’ – while claiming that publishing the leaks could be ‘a criminal matter’ – Government sources were already admitting that the cyber-spies at the Government’s GCHQ were likely to be brought in to step up the hunt for the culprit.
And despite the speed at which the President’s public fury had erupted, by Friday Mr Trump was mending fences, saying he wished Sir Kim well.
He admitted that the US had leaking problems that he needed to fix as well, and insisted that Sir Kim had ‘actually said very good things about me’.
Diplomats in Washington and officials in London breathed a sigh of relief as the storm appeared to be passing after just five days.
Whitehall officials believe it was a personal dislike of Sir Kim’s comments that prompted Trump’s reaction from the White House, rather than a wider threat to the special relationship, and expect a marked improvement in relations if Mr Johnson becomes Prime Minister.