Peter Mandelson has been rebuffed for saying Volodymyr Zelenskyy should be more supportive of US peace efforts and that Ukraine should unilaterally call a ceasefire, with a UK defence minister saying this was “not government policy”.
The overnight comments by Lord Mandelson, the UK ambassador to Washington, were also criticised by opposition parties, with the Liberal Democrats saying Mandelson should not be “telling President Zelenskyy what to do”.
In an interview with ABC News, Mandelson, who was Keir Starmer’s choice to try to maintain ties with the second Donald Trump administration, said there was a need for a “very radical reset” after Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, berated Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Friday.
“The reset has to consist of the United States and Ukraine getting back on the same page, President Zelenskyy giving his unequivocal backing to the initiative that President Trump is taking to end the war and to bring a just and lasting peace to Ukraine,” Mandelson said.
“And the Europeans too, they need to back the calls for a ceasefire, and – by the way – I think that Ukraine should be the first to commit to a ceasefire and defy the Russians to follow.”
Asked whether this was government policy, Luke Pollard, the armed forces minister, replied: “No.” He told Sky News: “It’s certainly right that Ukrainians want peace. I think of all the people on our continent that want peace, the Ukrainians want it the most.
“But we’re still in discussions, diplomatic engagement with our European, US and Ukrainian friends as to the shape of that deal. It’s certainly right that the war could stop tomorrow if President Putin stopped his illegal and unprovoked aggression. He could stop this war.”
Asked if Mandelson had been incorrect with his comments, Pollard said: “That’s not government policy.”
Earlier, senior figures in the Lib Dems and Conservatives criticised Mandelson’s intervention. Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, tweeted: “What is Mandelson up to? You cannot square what the prime minister said this morning with this. What is the government’s actual position? Our man in DC should be securing US protection for our brave Ukrainian allies, not telling President Zelenskyy what to do.”
James Cleverly, a former Conservative foreign secretary, said: “The UK ambassador to Washington isn’t meant to communicate his own opinion, he is meant to communicate the UK government opinion. Lammy and Starmer need to grip this.”
