Former US President Barack Obama’s sweary private reaction of horror at Britain’s decision to leave the EU has been disclosed for the first time.
According to Britain’s former ambassador in the US, Lord Kim Darroch, Obama thought the UK had “f***ed” itself.
Writing in Sir Anthony Seldon’s book, The Brexit Effect, which is being serialised in the Independent, Lord Darroch, UK envoy in Washington in 2016 when the EU referendum took place, says senior figures in Obama’s government were “horrified” by Brexit.
The serialisation is part of a new campaign by The Independent on how Britain can rebuild its shattered links with Europe. The campaign – Europe: The Way Back – will consist of news, analysis, interviews and live events examining the impact of Brexit and what our relationship with Europe should look like.
Lord Darroch recalls a colourful account by a member of Obama’s close entourage two days after the referendum when asked for the President’s view.
Lord Darroch writes: ‘“He (Obama) thinks you’ve completely f***ed yourselves.” This was Washington DC in June 2016, a couple of days after the Leave victory, lunch with one of Barack Obama’s inner circle, and his response to my question about how Obama had viewed the outcome.
“My guest continued: ‘We just don’t understand why you would call a referendum you didn’t need to hold without being absolutely certain of getting the right answer. What happens now you’ve blown yourselves up?’”
Obama had sparked controversy weeks before the Brexit vote when he said if Britain left the EU the UK would be at “the back of the queue” for trade talks with the US. It was seen as a bungled attempt to help Conservative prime minister David Cameron win his doomed fight to keep Britain in the EU.
Lord Darroch describes Brexit as an “egregious act of self-harming” that has left Britain “diminished and isolated”.
He says many senior American figures thought likewise at the time of the vote. “I noticed people staring at me with a near-horrified look in their eyes: ‘What have you done?’
“A friend in the State Department said ‘some of us are wondering what the point of the UK is now you’re going to leave the EU’.”
The general American view of Brexit was that “the Keystone Cops were running the show,” says Lord Darroch.
“I and my embassy colleagues were being asked a dozen times a day: ‘What on earth is going on over there?’
”A senior State Department figure said to me in a bewildered tone and with a look of pity in his eyes: ‘We are used to government collapses and chaos in some of your European neighbours, but we thought you were the sensible ones.’
“A centuries-old reputation for stable government and an orderly parliament, all run in accordance with ancient traditions, was lost.”
In reality, Brexit had left the UK “both diminished and isolated”.
It risked having to “go, metaphorically on our knees to the US and to the EU” pleading for a better tariffs deal.
“The most egregiously self-harming aspect of our Brexit deal is that, notwithstanding our history as one of the great free-trading nations of the world… we erected a hard border with the EU.”
In a jibe seemingly aimed at Donald Trump, Lord Darroch argues Britain should be making the case for free trade and action on climate action because “for the next few years, none of this will be coming from America”.
Sign up to our free Europe: The Way Back newsletter here, or by entering your email address using the form below:
What you will get by joining:
