Why it's time for a British Logan Act - Alastair Stewart
If we're honest, Donald Trump and Nigel Farage's friendship is the only remaining aspect of the Anglo-American 'Special Relationship'.
Aptly enough, the term became widespread the same year Trump was born. Winston Churchill's 1946 'Iron Curtain' speech famously idealised "the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States."
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Hide AdFarage, elected as an MP in July after years of campaigning for Brexit, said he would "do all that I can" to help the British government strengthen relations with the incoming Trump administration.
The offer follows a lengthy reciprocal courting by the Reform leader of the now-President-elect. After a decade of fundraisers, conventions, interviews, campaigns, and rally appearances on behalf of Trump, Farage is now the ultimate British rightwing poster boy.
Farage even became the first foreign political figure to meet Trump in person days following the 2016 presidential election when he was still leader of the UK Independence Party. Just over a week after meeting in New York, President-elect Trump hailed Farage as a future ambassador for the UK.
Farage is one of the few bridges to an administration that has already filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against the Labour Party, accusing it of "blatant foreign interference" because UK activists campaigned for the Harris-Walz campaign. Many of the now-Labour frontbench, including foreign secretary David Lammy, have derided Trump, calling him a "neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath".
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Hide AdFarage has offered his services to Sir Keir Starmer's government, saying he would be "useful as an interlocutor" with Donald Trump. The British government has previously dismissed Farage's offers, with Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden insisting Labour would "have our own relationships" and arguing that Farage should prioritise representing his Clacton constituents.
Even Peter Mandelson (himself hotly tipped to be the new UK ambassador to Washington) said Starmer's government should use the Reform UK leader as a bridge. "You can't ignore him," said Mandelson, "He's an elected member of parliament. He's a public figure."
The Reform leader's longstanding allyship with Trump is almost beside the point. The issue is that the groundwork was laid when he was still the leader of a UK political party and continues when he is a Member of Parliament, which is a little unnerving.
Backchannel international politicking is nothing new. However, it feels distinctly like foreign policy is being written behind closed doors at Mar-a-Lago, and the issue has been allowed to fester because the UK has never decided how to regulate politicians who go global.
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Hide AdGeorge Galloway, the late Alex Salmond, and every former prime minister since Winston Churchill have disproportionately impacted the perception of UK government foreign policy without being part of an administration.
A British citizen, who is either a backbencher or leader of a party, should be governed by the equivalent of a lobbying register if they are undertaking relationships with foreign heads of state, candidates or political groups and parties abroad.
There are already laws, codes of conduct, and registers of interest for serving Members of Parliament. However, more must be done to chart where policy influencing starts, which is a more nebulous but critical matter for senior political officials in the public eye.
Former prime ministers such as Boris Johnson speak out on international relations and will always make the news. This is not to ban lecturing or commentary on foreign affairs. But something is awry when active British politicians unilaterally extend or undermine foreign policy with freewheeling media interviews and cavalier trips abroad.
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Hide AdWhen Johnson visited Ukraine in January 2023, he met President Zelensky and called on Western leaders to dispatch fighter jets to Ukraine again. Tobias Ellwood, then chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee, said Johnson should "not interfere with the messaging or the official lines of communication" between the countries.
In February, the former PM travelled to the United States to meet senior Republican leadership. Downing Street noted that Johnson did not speak for the UK government. Senior military figures said the former PM was a "loose cannon" and should not be "looking for publicity."
The solution is either some register or an outright ban. The latter would provoke an inevitable backlash, while the former seems a material and realistic option. It also has the irony of helping to crack down on the perception that a global elite is making policy and politics away from electorates (a very Trumpian and Faragian message, anyway).
To end this circus, the UK must legislate on an equivalent of the US Logan Act, which criminalises unauthorised negotiations by unauthorised American citizens with foreign governments. The act was passed after George Logan negotiated with France as a private citizen in 1798 and was signed into law on January 30, 1799.
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Hide AdEven a Logan Act light would remove the bizarre situation where Farage - an MP of six months - is the best bet to restore some goodwill for the next Trump administration. The issue is less that Farage has something to offer and very much that he should never have been allowed to put himself in that position in the first place.
Any former prime minister, parliament member, or political party leader who engages in unsanctioned international activity can jeopardise behind-the-scenes diplomatic activity and even military operations or risk Britain's reputation.
Farage described Trump as a "pro-British American president" and claimed the Republican politician would give the UK "potentially huge opportunities if we can overcome the difficulties that the whole of the cabinet have been rude about him".
If Farage has some formal role, so be it — but this ad hoc, seat-of-his-pants global politicking by such a high-profile individual is dangerous and undermines the policymaking powers of the British government,
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