New Zealand’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Phil Goff has effectively been sacked by Foreign Minister Winston Peters over remarks he made at a Chatham House event in London this week.
Goff had attended an event at which Finnish Foreign Affairs Minister Elina Valtonen was speaking, and the two discussed how Finland was able to maintain peace on its border with Russia.
Goff said he had been rereading a speech by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1938, after the Munich Agreement.
“He turned to Chamberlain,” Goff related, “And he said, ‘You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war.’ President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?”
“We have asked the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Bede Corry to now work through with Mr Goff the upcoming leadership transition at the New Zealand High Commission in London,” a spokesperson said
Peters said he would have ended the role if the comments were made about any other nation.“If he had made that comment about Germany, France, Tonga or Samoa, I would have been forced to react. This is seriously regrettable. One of the most difficult things one’s had to do in a whole career,” he told reporters, because “I worked with Phil Goff; I have known him for a long time; I’ve worked in government with him.”
“When you are in that position you represent the government and the policies of the day, you’re not able to free think, you are the face of New Zealand,” Peters said.
“It’s not the way you behave as the front face of a country, diplomatically.
“We cannot have people making comments which impinge upon our very future no matter what the country is, whether it’s Niue, Samoa, Tonga, Japan or, dare I say it, the United States.”
The timing of Goff’s departure would be left to officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) to coordinate.
Peters said he had not consulted Prime Minister Christopher Luxon before firing Goff because “I am the Minister for Foreign Affairs,” though he had told him afterwards.
He later said the actions did not undermine the prime minister.
In response, Luxon backed the foreign minister’s decision.
“I expect our diplomats to be diplomatic,” he said, saying he did not need to be consulted on these matters.
Goff entered Parliament in 1981 and was elevated to Cabinet in 1984, becoming its youngest member.
After Helen Clark’s government was defeated in 2008 and she resigned, Goff took over as Leader of the Opposition.
In 2011, after being heavily defeated in the election, Goff and his deputy resigned that December, making him the fourth Labour leader—but the first since 1965—to leave the leadership without ever becoming prime minister. He was appointed foreign affairs spokesperson by his successor.
Labour Leader Responds
Current Labour leader Chris Hipkins said Goff’s comments “were certainly more political than you would expect from a diplomat.“I think if a politician had said those comments, I don’t think anyone would particularly bat an eyelid, but Phil Goff is currently a diplomat, and so there is a different standard for diplomats.”
Clark, however, came to his defence, posting on X that, “This looks like a very thin excuse for sacking a highly respected former #NZ Foreign Minister from his post as High Commissioner to the UK.
“I have been at Munich Security Conference recently, where many draw parallels between Munich 1938 and U.S. actions now.”
Earlier this week, Luxon said he still viewed the United States as a reliable partner on defence and trade, despite the Oval Office clash between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“We have a strong partnership with the U.S., there’s a lot of collaboration, there’s lots we can do together,” the Prime Minister said.
