Donald Trump is risking world peace by siding with North Korea, China and Belarus in refusing to condemn Vladimir Putin, senior Tories have claimed.
In a chilling warning, former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine said the US president risks forming a “new axis” which will reward Russia and its allies.
Lord Heseltine spoke out after the Trump administration, alongside Russia, North Korea and Belarus, rejected a UN resolution condemning Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The resolution was backed by 93 nations.
The vote came just hours before French president Emmanuel Macron visited Trump in the White House and ahead of Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to Washington later this week.
North Korea was one of the nations named in the “axis of evil” speech made by US president George W Bush following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US.
Lord Heseltine, who was in the UK government which stood alongside the US against Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, told The Independent: “Those of us who admire America will find this axis of the US with China, Russia and North Korea in a UN vote inexplicable.
“We have relied on American support which enabled us to defeat the fascists in the 1940s and saw the rehabilitation of democracy in the post war Atlantic alliance and it has now thrown an incentive not to peacekeepers but to those who threaten the stability of the modern world.”
Mr Bush’s axis of evil comprised North Korea, Iran and Iraq. China abstained in the UN vote on Ukraine, but has made clear its support for Russia. Iran and Iraq also abstained.
The motion, which was drafted by Ukraine and other European countries, passed with 93 votes in favour on Monday, with 18 nations against and 64 abstaining.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who has been sanctioned by China for supporting those who stand up for democracy, added: “It was a sad day for us all.
“The ‘leader of the free world’ siding with totalitarian states guilty of murder, slave labour, war and genocide. The great presidents of the past will be turning in their graves.”
Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told The Independent: “Disgraceful but all part of Trump’s tactics to endear himself to Putin and increase the prospects of getting Putin to agree a deal.”
However, he added: “It is encouraging that Trump is now inviting [Volodymyr] Zelensky to the White House. All part of his shambolic style and unpredictability. He might just pull it off. But only someone with Trump’s crazy temperament could/would use such chaotic methods. We live in interesting times!”
The US urged other countries to vote against the UN resolution and proposed a separate resolution that called for an end to the three-year-long war, but did not single out Moscow for any responsibility in the conflict.
It was a three-paragraph resolution that called for a “swift end to the conflict and a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia”.
In her speech on foreign policy on Tuesday, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch struck a more conciliatory note than her political predecessors.
She said: “America’s an ally. I have been very clear that I disagreed with President Trump when he said President Zelensky was a dictator. I wouldn’t be afraid to say so.
“The US is not an authoritarian regime. What we see the US doing is acting in its national interests. We disagree on the voting of that resolution.”
Last week, Mr Trump blamed Mr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, for starting the war in 2022 and called him a “dictator”.
“A dictator without elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a country left,” Mr Trump said on Truth Social.
He later admitted that Mr Putin had invaded Ukraine but said the US and Kyiv should not have allowed him to do it, repeating his claim the war never would have started if he had been US president in 2022.
On Monday, Mr Trump again refused to call Mr Putin a dictator. The president said he did “not use those words lightly” when asked the question at the White House alongside French president Emmanuel Macron.
