Newly installed British Prime Minister Andy Burnhams choice of hard-left ideologue Ed Miliband as Foreign Secretary is already straining the so-called Special Relationship with the United States.
According to Gateway Pundit, the Biden White House is concerned about Burnhams decision to hand the Foreign Office to a man whose record is defined by radical climate activism and hostility to conservative leadership in Washington. Even before Burnham, the former mayor of Manchester, entered Downing Street, American officials had reportedly cautioned London against elevating Miliband to such a pivotal diplomatic post.
Those private warnings echo a recent history in which British leaders ignored U.S. concerns at their peril, as when Keir Starmer pushed through the appointment of Jeffrey Epstein associate Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington despite President Donald Trumps objections, triggering one of the most destabilizing political scandals in modern British politics.
The Telegraph reported that Miliband promised to deepen ties with the EU before speaking about Britains essential alliance with the United States. That sequencing alone underscores where his priorities lie: Brussels first, Washington second. Donald Trumps team previously warned that they would find it difficult to work with him, the paper noted, highlighting the ideological gulf between Milibands net-zero crusade and the America-First agenda that reshaped U.S. policy under President Trump.
A senior Trump administration official told The Telegraph that Mr. Miliband would be a point of friction in the transatlantic relationship because of his support for green energy projects that Mr. Trump had criticized.
Those concerns were relayed in unofficial talks between the Trump administration and Burnhams team, suggesting Washingtons unease is neither new nor superficial. Milibands record backs up that skepticism: he led opposition to the use of the UK base at Diego Garcia for U.S. bombers and fought fiercely against drilling in the North Sea, putting ideological environmentalism ahead of strategic security and energy independence. He even said: A Trump-style climate culture war is not what the British people want, a remark that dismisses legitimate debate over the economic and social costs of extreme green policies.
Milibands past rhetoric about President Trump is even more revealing of his worldview and likely to inflame tensions with any future Republican administration. Mr. Miliband could also face a backlash over his historical comments about Mr. Trump. In 2016, he wrote: We must do our best at home and abroad to resist the worst of Trumpism These are dark days for America and the world. There can be little solace right now.
With Burnham now relying on a Foreign Secretary who openly derides American conservatism while pledging to bind Britain closer to the European Union, the question is not whether friction will emerge with Washington, but how severe the damage will be when Milibands talk on the U.S. alliance collides with his long record of refusing to walk the walk.
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