'Don't be silly' over Falklands and Irish unity, top Tory tells Trump

- Published

The shadow foreign secretary has told Donald Trump "don't be silly" over his comments on the UK's sovereignty of the Falkland Islands and Irish reunification.

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat said the US president was trying to appeal to voters at home by making comments about the British overseas territory in the Atlantic Ocean and saying he would "love" to see a united Ireland.

Trump has said America's position on the Falklands is "one of many" under review, and hinted he would not help the UK in any potential future conflict with Argentina.

And the US president said on a visit to Ireland last week that Irish reunification was "going to happen eventually" and it would be a "great thing".

Britain and Argentina still dispute the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, four decades on from an armed conflict there which the UK won.

Argentina's president heightened tensions with the UK over the Falkland Islands earlier this month, saying in a presidential address that "winds of change" favoured his country's claim to the islands.

He warned he will impose economic sanctions on firms which exploit oil nearby.

In response, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the UK's position on the islands was "unwavering", and they would remain British as "that is the overwhelming position of the Islanders."

And Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has hit back strongly over the issue, insisting "the Falkland Islands are British" and that Britain's continued connection with them "is of vital importance".

But Tugendhat, the Tory MP for Tonbridge in Kent who Badenoch appointed her shadow foreign secretary in a reshuffle earlier this month, has suggested Trump does not mean it.

"What he's doing is he's bumping his gums on some issues that he thinks are supportive to various electoral issues for himself at home," he told Nick Robinson on Political Thinking.

"He's got elections coming up in November, he knows he's got votes to win.

"Is it helpful to us? No. But this is his politics, not ours. So sometimes we have to say something and sometimes we have to go, 'come on mate, don't be silly'."

Tugendhat explained that Britain's military capability in the Falklands is radically different from in 1982, when the UK and Argentina fought for 74 days over the territory, with the UK Foreign Office not negotiating to give the islands up in recent years.

And asked about Trump saying he would "love to see" Irish reunification on a recent trip there, Tugendhat branded this "plain old electioneering," ahead of US mid-term elections in November.

"Is he going to do anything about it? No," he added.

Chinese sanctions

Elsewhere in his interview, Tugendhat revealed he had received no confirmation from China that the country's sanctions against him had been dropped.

This is despite then-Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announcing they had been in January.

He said he would only visit China, whose communist regime he has long criticised, if there was something relevant and worth discussing - but he feels talks can be held elsewhere at the moment.

He also said Miliband should have waited rather than showing "weakness" by sanctioning Israel over the issue of settler violence in the West Bank.

And he ruled out bringing Britain back into the European Union if in government, despite his close personal ties to the continent including his French wife who was influential in the recent Bayeux Tapestry exchange.

Having run against Badenoch for Tory leader in 2022, he praised her performance as leader so far - saying her hoping to be Britain's next prime minister was "like a burden lifted from my shoulders".