New Zealand’s ambassador to the UK has been dismissed from his position after he made remarks seen as critical of US president Donald Trump, foreign minister Winston Peters said.
Phil Goff, New Zealand’s high commissioner to the UK, made the comments at an event held by the international affairs think tank Chatham House in London on Tuesday, where Finland’s foreign minister Elina Valtonen was a guest speaker.
Mr Goff, who was in the audience, asked a question to Ms Valtonen after she spoke about how to keep the peace with Russia, with which Finland shares a border.
He spoke about Mr Trump restoring the bust of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill to the Oval Office, and referred to his speech from 1938 when he was an MP in the government of Neville Chamberlain.
Mr Goff said he had been re-reading the speech in which Churchill denounced his own government for signing the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler, allowing Germany to annex part of Czechoslovakia.
He quoted Churchill telling Chamberlain: “You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war.”
Mr Goff then went on to ask Ms Valtonen: “President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?”
Ms Valtonen responded by saying that she would “limit herself” to saying that Churchill “has made very timeless remarks”.
Foreign minister Peters said it was “seriously regrettable” that he had to take the decision to remove Mr Goff over the remark, adding that he would have done the same regardless of which world leader was on the receiving end of them.
He said the comments were “disappointing” and “untenable”.
“They do not represent the views of the NZ government and make his position as high commissioner to London untenable,” he said.
“We have asked the secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Bede Corry, to now work through with Mr Goff the upcoming leadership transition at the New Zealand High Commission in London,” Mr Peters added.
Ms Valtonen’s speech on Tuesday was billed as covering Finland’s approach to European security at an event entitled “Keeping the peace on Nato’s longest border with Russia”’.
“When you are in that position you represent the government and the policies of the day,” Mr Peters said. “You’re not able to free think, you are the face of New Zealand.”
Former prime minister Helen Clark – who was Mr Goff’s boss during his time as a minister – denounced his sacking in a post on X, where she wrote the episode was “a very thin excuse” for removing a “highly respected” former foreign minister from his diplomatic role.
Mr Goff has been New Zealand’s envoy to the UK since January 2023. He is yet to issue a response to his sacking.
