Johnson and Hunt Share Views, Not Style on U.K. Foreign Policy

(Bloomberg) -- What would Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt mean for British foreign policy? On key issues, the two Conservative candidates share common positions: Both see the U.S. as Britain’s most important ally, prefer cautious engagement with Russia and support the Iran nuclear deal.

But delve deeper and it’s clear the pair -- the former British foreign secretary and his successor -- would represent the U.K. in very different ways.

President Trump

Donald Trump has made no secret of his admiration for Johnson and has said he thinks he would make a great prime minister. The U.S. president wanted to meet the Tory front-runner during his U.K. visit this month -- but settled for a phone call because the former mayor of London said he was too busy.

Johnson, who was born in New York, has boasted during the leadership contest of his pull in the U.S., saying he persuaded Trump to expel diplomats in response to the poisoning of a Russian former spy in Salisbury. But he also failed to persuade the White House to stick with the Iran nuclear deal.

Hunt’s relationship with the U.S. is more complex. As foreign secretary, he welcomed Trump on his state visit and the two men held talks, but there wasn’t the same warmth Trump evidently has for Johnson. Hunt, a former health secretary, was critical of Trump’s insistence that the National Health Service should be on the table in trade talks.

He may be trying too hard to catch up. Hunt was ridiculed for defending Trump when the president criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan and endorsed a right-wing commentator’s tweet describing the U.K. capital as “Khan’s Londonistan.” Hunt said he “150%” agreed with Trump, before qualifying his approval.

Other Leaders

While he’s less of a hit with Trump, Hunt has boasted of his detailed conversations on Brexit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, and the former businessman has used his time in the Foreign Office to burnish his credentials as a deal maker.

Johnson has skeletons in the closet he may find it hard to shake off. It’s a long rap sheet that includes writing a sexually explicit limerick about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and having to apologize to Papua New Guinea over his allegations of “cannibalism and chief-killing.”

Saudi Arabia

As the U.K.’s top diplomat, Hunt has stuck to constructive engagement with Saudi Arabia, championing reforms and only raising human rights abuses in private. He has defended London’s intelligence and defense ties with Riyadh, but he did criticize the kingdom over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The failure to achieve that delicate balancing act earned Johnson a rebuke from the prime minister’s office in 2016, after he accused Saudi politicians of “twisting and abusing religion” and “puppeteering and playing proxy wars” in the Middle East. More loyal ministers were sent out to repair the damage.

Iran

Johnson’s dealings with Iran were a low point of his time as foreign secretary. His incorrect comment that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian imprisoned in the Islamic Republic on spying charges, had been teaching journalists rather than visiting her family was seized on by Iranian state television as an “unintended admission” of her guilt. Her family says her sentence was extended as a result; Johnson insists otherwise.

Hunt, while defending U.K. support for the Iran nuclear deal after the U.S. withdrew, was quick to endorse Washington’s assessment that Iran had attacked oil tankers in the region. The U.K. believes the U.S. “because they’re our closest ally,” Hunt said. He has also taken on the cause of Zaghari-Ratcliffe, meeting with her family and praising the campaign for her release.

China

Hunt, who has a Chinese wife -- though he accidentally described her as Japanese during a trip to China -- has championed close ties with Beijing. He was in the Cabinet when former Prime Minister David Cameron encouraged Chinese investment in U.K. infrastructure, though he has hinted he favors limiting the role of Huawei Technologies Co. in 5G telecoms networks.

Johnson may face difficulties with China depending on his choice of key ministers. Former Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, who was key to marshaling MPs to vote for Johnson during the Tory leadership contest, infuriated the Chinese government when he announced a plan to send an aircraft carrier to the South China Sea. A visit to China by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond was canceled as relations soured.

Diplomatic Gaffes

Despite having the demeanor of a suave diplomat, Hunt’s record is not unblemished. He was widely condemned for a speech last year in which he likened the European Union’s dealings on Brexit to the Soviet Union’s policy of preventing people from leaving. May and several European leaders -- including some who grew up behind the iron curtain in the Cold War -- rebuked him.

Johnson has a long history of gaffes, including an interview during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign in which he compared the EU’s aims to Hitler. He had to be stopped from reciting a colonial-era poem during a visit to Myanmar’s holiest Buddhist site -- the British ambassador warned him it would be seen as offensive -- and was slapped down by May’s office for a flippant comment about people killed in the Libyan city of Sirte.

--With assistance from Jessica Shankleman.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Emma Ross-Thomas

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