newsNew Zealand fires its top man in London to stop Donald Trump blowing a fuse in Washington
Phil Goff – New Zealand High Commissioner to the United Kingdom until he asked about Trump’s knowledge of history
It’s Commonwealth Day (March 10, 2025) Representatives from the 54 member states who form a club originally called the British Commonwealth will gather in Westminster Abbey to demonstrate their commitment to truth, justice, human rights and free speech. But the former New Zealand High Commissioner to the UK, Phil Goff, won’t be there. He lost his job when he indulged in a bit of free speech of his own. TREVOR GRUNDY reports –
The Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey in London has been held every year since 1972. It gives the royals a chance to parade in all their glory while leaders of member states repeat their timeless commitment to human rights.
With a combined population of 2.4 billion people, the Commonwealth is one of the world’s biggest organisations.
A committed member state is New Zealand which was one of the founder members of the British Commonwealth, the others being Australia, Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
But last week, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters fired his country’s most senior envoy to the United Kingdom over remarks he made about Donald Trump’s grasp – or rather non-grasp – of history.
Peters will soon be off to Washington to pay homage to the American leader, who wants worshippers, not critics.
Peters and the prime minister Christopher Luxon don’t want anything or anyone to damage good relations between USA and NZ.
They both know how insanely erratic Trump can be when under fire.
Last Tuesday, Phil Goff rose from his chair in the audience of a gathering of diplomats and journalists at Chatham House and asked the Finish Foreign Affairs Minister Elina Valtonen a question that led to his immediate dismissal.
Goff said that he had been reading a speech made by Winston Churchill in 1938 after the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had returned from a meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich about the growing crisis between Nazi Germany and Czechoslovakia.
Chamberlain returned from Germany and waved a piece of paper in the air, turned to a camera and proclaimed these now never-to-be forgotten words –
“Peace for our time.”
Soon afterwards, Chamberlain appeared on the balcony at Buckingham Palace along with King George V1 and his wife.
They waved to a delighted crowd below.
Churchill wasn’t one of them.
Of Chamberlain’s Munich Conference peace plan, Churchill said – “You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war.”
And war it was.
Comparing what happened between Chamberlain and Hitler in 1938 and what is happening now between Trump and Putin, Goff stood up and asked the Finish minister –
”President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill in the Oval Office. But do you really think he understands history?”
It didn’t take long for Winston Peters to swing a sharp axe towards Goff’s still smiling face.
He said that the High Commissioner’s question was “deeply disappointing” and one that made his position in London “untenable.”
He told reporters in New Zealand: “When you are in that position you represent the government and the politics of the day, you’re not able to free think, you are the face of New Zealand.”
He said he would have taken the same course of action, no matter which country was being spoken about.
Mr Goff is a veteran politician who held the position of HC to the UK since January 2023.
Before that, he served for two terms as mayor of Aukland, New Zealand’s largest city and was leader of the Labour Party from 2008 to 2011.
He held several ministerial portfolios, including justice, foreign affairs and defence.
Peters, who is also deputy prime minister, told journalists that he made the decision to sack Phil Goff without first consulting the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon.
Neville Chamberlain with Adolf Hitler after the Munich peace accord in 1938
Under the 1938 Munich Agreement, Hitler took control of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland. The peace deal failed to stop the German army from advancing deep into Europe. World War Two started when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.