America would be blundering into a “catastrophic mistake” if it abandoned Ukraine under a Donald Trump presidency, former Tory leader Lord Hague is warning.
The ex-Foreign Secretary issued the stark assessement after Mr Trump chose senator JD Vance, who has voiced scepticism about continuing steadfast US support for Kyiv, to be his running mate as he seeks a White House comeback.
“He’s gone for a younger version of himself in many ways in political attitudes, including on Ukraine,” the peer told Times Radio.
“If they were elected they would rue the day eventually where they abandoned Ukraine because that will just impose enormous costs on all western countries if that happened.
“It will show that the West does not have credibility in standing by countries in the future.
“That will embolden China, Iran, North Korea, so it would be a catastrophic mistake for American foreign policy to abandon Ukraine.
“So the fact that both Trump and his running mate have that sort of attitude is I think the biggest of all concerns that we might have about the presidential election in November.”
Republicans have already temporarily delayed munitions’ supplies to Kyiv, which was seen by military experts to have helped Vladimir Putin’s army to make gains in Ukraine.Lord Hague also stressed that a Trump presidency could pose major foreign policy problems for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
Mr Trump now looks more likely to win the US presidential election after the failed assassination attempt against him.
Lord Hague disputed how long the ex-president’s boost in popularity after the shooting would last.
But as a Trump second term looks more likely, he stressed: “These are icebergs coming to Starmer’s way.
“If America is going in the opposite direction on Ukraine, trade, climate, a whole series of massive international issues, that is going to be the hardest foreign policy challenge to deal with that a British government has had to deal with in a long time.”
He explained further: “If you think of the situation in the Middle East, if that carries on, Trump’s policy is just back Israel on everything, you know, basically give them everything they need to finish the job.
“That’s definitely not the view of a large part of the Labour Party.”
He stressed that American politics had become far more divided than the days when he was Foreign Secretary from 2010 to 2014, and shadowing the role for five years previously, and he found it easy to deal with both Republican Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Democrat Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
