Peters says Goff's role in UK 'untenable' after Trump remark

Foreign Minister Winston Peters says Phil Goff's position as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom is now "untenable" after remarks he made about Donald Trump, which he described as "deeply disappointing".

The one-time Labour leader and former senior minister was appointed to the high commission job in London in 2022 after he served two terms as Auckland mayor.

Goff made the comments on Trump in a question he posed at a live-streamed Q&A event with Finland's foreign minister Elina Valtonen, on Tuesday.

He asked the speaker: "I was re-reading Churchill's speech to the House of Commons in 1938 after the Munich Agreement, and he turned to Chamberlain, he said, ‘You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war.'

"President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?"

Goff's effective sacking from his role was first reported by The Post this morning.

Peters said in a statement to 1News: "Phil Goff’s comments are deeply disappointing.

"They do not represent the views of the New Zealand Government and make his position as High Commissioner to London untenable.

"We have asked the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Bede Corry, to now work through with Mr Goff the upcoming leadership transition at the New Zealand High Commission in London."

In May 2023, Goff attracted criticism while in his UK role after the delegation of Kīngi Tuheitia, the late-Māori King, said they felt belittled by his hospitality at an event.

Goff, a veteran politician, was a Cabinet minister under both David Lange and Helen Clark's Labour governments, later serving as the party's leader at the 2011 election, before transitioning to local politics as Auckland's mayor after his tenure as an MP.