Former UK Prime Minister Theresa May has blasted her successor, Boris Johnson, for "abandoning" the country's "global moral leadership," saying that his threats to override international law in Brexit talks and decision to slash the foreign aid budget amid the pandemic did not raise "our credibility in the eyes of the world."
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th January, 2021) Former UK Prime Minister Theresa May has blasted her successor, Boris Johnson, for "abandoning" the country's "global moral leadership," saying that his threats to override international law in Brexit talks and decision to slash the foreign aid budget amid the pandemic did not raise "our credibility in the eyes of the world."
In an op-ed article for Daily Mail published late on Tuesday, May used the upcoming Joe Biden inauguration and the January 6 US Capitol unrest to reiterate the importance of the Western leadership of "the free world." She expressed hope that on the Biden team, "Britain has partners for positive action to make our world a safer place."
According to the ex-prime minister, the UK is "well placed to play a decisive role in the international arena, having "an excellent diplomatic network, a strong military, and enviable soft power."
"But to lead we must live up to our values. Threatening to break international law by going back on a [Brexit] treaty we had just signed and abandoning our position of global moral leadership as the only major economy to meet both the 2 per cent defence spending target and the 0.7 per cent international aid target were not actions which, in my view, raised our credibility in the eyes of the world," she stated.
In an apparent warning to her successor, she stressed that "the world does not owe us a prominent place on its stage," and urged against doing anything that "signals a retreat from our global commitments."
She noted that the arrival of Biden at the White House would provide the UK with a "golden opportunity," as "he will be a more predictable and reliable partner for Global Britain," than Trump.
Johnson's predecessor also expressed hope that together, the two countries will "make the 2020s a decade in which democracy and decency lead the world into a brighter future."
