British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Sunday he never sought President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the U.K. election of the next British prime minister.
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Hunt pushed back at Trump’s reported assertion that there’d been candidates who’ve asked for his backing to succeed PM Theresa May.
“No, I have never asked, and you know, I think my job is to represent the British government,” he said. “And I think that the worst thing anyone could imagine is a foreign secretary talking about the future leadership of the country when he's there to represent the current government and the current prime minister.”
Hunt also said he wouldn’t stand in the way of the extradition to the United States of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
“We would have to follow our own legal processes just as the [United States] has to follow its own legal processes,” he said. “But would I want to stand in the way of Julian Assange facing justice? No I would not.”
The foreign minister also said the U.K. is “taking … very seriously” the threat posed by China and specifically tech giant Huawei, though he deflected answering whether intelligence sharing would stop between the United States and Britain if there’s a clash on the issue.
“If America asks us to do things, you guys are doing so much to defend Europe and defend freedom across the world,” he said. “You know we would want to be cooperative but we would always do so within due process and we would never do anything improper and- and we don't have any secrets.”
He also avoided painting any stark differences between the U.K. and United States on Iran after Washington pulled out of the multinational nuclear non-proliferation pact with Iran.
“Well, we've never disagreed with the [United States] about the threat posed by Iran, and we see the intelligence that the [United States] sees,” he said. “We have a very close intelligence sharing relationship… But we do want to make sure that Iran doesn't go nuclear. …that’s why we signed up with the previous administration to the Iran nuclear deal.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.