Trump ally accuses Cameron of 'panda hugging' China
- Trump ally Elbridge Colby says David Lammy is ‘far preferable’ to David Cameron
A key Donald Trump ally has accused Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron of ‘panda hugging’ China and ‘lecturing’ Americans.
Elbridge Colby, a front-runner to be chosen a Trump’s national security adviser, also said he would rather work with Labour than the Conservatives, accusing the former Prime Minister of ‘foreign interference’ in US politics over funding Ukraine.
But Mr Colby, who worked in the US defence department when Trump was president, met with shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy, as Sir Keir Starmer ploughs ahead with schmoozing Trump allies.
The Trump ally has been critical of the $61billion aid package that the US Congress approved last month in the face of criticism from many Republican congressmen and women.
Lord Cameron and the UK Government approved of the funding and the Foreign Secretary visited congress and Trump at his home in Mar-a-Lago before the vote.
Key Donald Trump ally Elbridge Colby (pictured) has accused Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron of ‘panda hugging’ China and ‘lecturing’ Americans
Then-Prime Minister David Cameron (left) greets China’s president Xi Jinping as he arrives in Downing Street on October 21, 2015
Mr Colby said this trips were an ‘astounding intervention into the American system, I mean, talk about foreign interference’, when speaking to Politico’s Power Play podcast, The Telegraph reports.
‘Cameron finds every opportunity to come and moralise to the Americans after he was responsible for cutting the British military and the ‘panda hug’ in the early 2010s,’ he added.
‘So it’s really the height of audacity for such a person to be coming and lecturing us.’
As Prime Minister, Lord Cameron hosted Chinese president Xi Jinping for a drink at a pub in moves to foster a closer relationship between China and the UK.
China-skeptic Mr Colby could end up as a key voice on US foreign policy if Trump wins the presidential election in November.
And with a UK general election looming and the possibility that that the Labour party could take power, Mr Colby said that David Lammy is ‘far preferable to David Cameron’.
He said that Mr Lammy is ‘laying out a more compatible vision to what people like me are talking about’, being a rise in defence spending, with a UK focus on Europe.
Mr Colby said shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy is ‘far preferable to David Cameron’
This comes after The Telegraph reported that Mr Lammy is at the forefront of the Labour leader’s attempts to win over ‘Trump world’.
He has been to the US six times since he was made shadow Foreign Secretary in 2021.
The Labour frontbencher has also had talks with Robert O’Brien and Matt Pottinger, who worked with Trump on national security.
Mr Colby also took aim at the PM over defence spending, branding his recent pledge to raise it from two to 2.5 per cent of GDP as ‘fake accounting trickery’.
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