New Zealand’s envoy to the U.K. has been fired for quoting Winston Churchill and questioning whether U.S. President Donald Trump “really understands history” during an event in London on Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Held at Chatham House, the storied institute of international affairs, Tuesday’s event featured Finland’s foreign minister, Elina Valtonen, discussing how Europe can bolster its support for Ukraine and keep the peace with Russia.
During a Q&A with the audience, New Zealand High Commissioner to the U.K. Phil Goff quoted Churchill’s words to then-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain after Chamberlain agreed to let Adolf Hitler annex part of Czechoslovakia in the 1938 Munich Agreement.
“You had the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, yet you will have war,” Churchill said at the time.
Goff then asked Valtonen: “President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office, but do you think he really understands history?”
“I will limit myself to saying that… [Churchill] has made very timeless remarks,” she said, smiling, as the audience chuckled.
Two days later, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed that Goff had been sacked over his “disappointing” remarks, which made his position “untenable,” the New Zealand Herald reported.
“When you are in that position you represent the government and the policies of the day,” Peters said. “You’re not able to free-think, you are the face of New Zealand.”
Goff, who has been New Zealand’s envoy to the U.K. since January 2023, did not immediately respond to the AP’s request for comment. From 1999 to 2005, he served as minister of foreign affairs and trade in the Labor government of then-Prime Minister Helen Clark.
“This looks like a very thin excuse for sacking a highly respected former NZ foreign minister from his post as High Commissioner to the UK,” Clark said in a post on the social media platform X. “I have been at [the] Munich Security Conference lately where many draw parallels between Munich 1938 and US actions now.”
During a press conference with reporters, Peters said he would have been “forced” to do the same thing if Goff had been speaking about “Germany, France, Tonga, or Samoa,” according to video posted by the Herald.
The country is attempting to “walk a careful line” with the U.S. after Trump hit New Zealand’s Five Eyes partner Canada with sweeping tariffs this week, the paper reported.
