The Conservatives have jumped on the confusion in the government’s foreign policy revealed by Nick Brown’s outburst on Comment is Freee (see Fraser’s post), with William Hague asking the Prime Minister to clarify who speaks for the government on foreign policy—the Foreign Secretary or the Deputy Chief Whip?
Gordon Brown has to get a grip. He needs to tell his attacks dogs—who are by all accounts straining at the leash—that foreign policy is off limits. British foreign policy can’t be turned into a battleground for the Labour party’s factional fighting.
The full letter from Hague to the PM after the jump:
Dear Prime Minister,
I am sure you will agree that in responding to the crisis in Georgia it is imperative that Britain should speak with a united and clear voice.
It is therefore extraordinary that Nick Brown, your Deputy Chief Whip, has written for the Guardian today that he does not favour NATO membership for Georgia, and he “doesn’t know anyone who does”.
This flatly contradicts the view of the British Government, which has been clearly expressed by the Foreign Secretary, most recently at the NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Brussels yesterday, when he said:
“I think in respect of Georgia it’s very significant that in May NATO committed not just to Georgia but also to the Ukraine that they would join other formerly, so-called, captive states of the former Warsaw Pact in NATO. And what we’re going to agree today is a special mechanism that will bind NATO and Georgia together, a NATO and Georgia commission that will take forward that commitment to Georgian membership”.
This position has been fully supported by the Conservative Party, as David Cameron made clear during his visit to Tbilisi, and in the Sunday Times where he wrote: “We must make clear that Georgia’s aspiration to be a member of NATO remains alive and well. The Alliance should offer Georgia a clear pathway to membership”. During his visit to Tbilisi on Saturday, David Cameron made clear that he strongly supported the position set out by you and David Miliband.
It is essential, not least on the day that he is in Tbilisi where he has underlined Britain’s commitment to Georgia’s membership of NATO, that the Foreign Secretary is clearly speaking on behalf of the British Government.
This is a time for rapid and decisive leadership. This damaging confusion in the midst of an international crisis – with one Minister saying one thing, and another saying completely the opposite – must be immediately cleared up.
Will you therefore make clear straight away that your Deputy Chief Whip was not speaking on behalf of the British Government and that you, like the Opposition, firmly support Georgia’s pathway to NATO membership?
And will you also take action to ensure that there is proper discipline within the Government on important foreign policy issues and that Foreign Office Ministers can speak on foreign policy without being contradicted by other senior members of the Government?
Yours ever
The Rt Hon William Hague MP
Shadow Foreign Secretary
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