When Gordon Brown became prime minister of Britain in June, he talked cleverly of forming a “government of all the talents”, and he took some people who had not been members of either Houses of Parliament. One was Lord Malloch Brown, who, as UN deputy secretary-general under Kofi Annan, had considerable power and influence on the international stage. He became a minister of state at the Foreign Office responsible for Africa, Asia and the United Nations.

Most people had never heard of Mark Malloch Brown, now Lord Malloch Brown, who was educated at Marlborough College, Wiltshire, and Cambridge University. For a time he wrote for The Economist. He moved on to the World Bank and became the head of the UN Development Program, before being invited to become Kofi Annan’s deputy and given the task of helping to reform the UN.

He attacked President Bush’s “megaphone diplomacy” and was critical of his attitude to multilateralism. In July 2006 he spoke at a seminar in New York, and claimed that in the United States there was “too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping over too many years.”

He added:

“The UN’s role is in effect a secret in Middle America even as it is highlighted in the Middle East and other parts of the world.”

Frankly, Malloch Brown’s observations were accurate, and the Bush administration’s two-faced attitude to the UN had annoyed UN staff, who, of course, lived in America and were only too aware of the public hostility to their work.

John Bolton, then the highly controversial and arrogant American ambassador to the United Nations, flew off the handle over this speech. He called on the secretary-general to “personally and publicly repudiate” these criticisms. He denounced Malloch Brown’s “condescending, patronizing tone about the American people.” I was not surprised the secretary-general supported his subordinate. His spokesman declared Annan agreed “with the thrust of his speech. The speech was not a mistake.”

I suspect Malloch Brown had previously discussed his speech with Annan and probably both felt this needed saying at some stage. In my eyes it was entirely appropriate that it was made by a British diplomat working for the UN at a high level. This row received considerable coverage in America. It is sad that within weeks of Lord Malloch Brown joining the Labour government, he began to get into trouble with the Labour Parliamentary Party. In July, in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, he declared foolishly that he would be “the wise eminence behind the young foreign secretary”. Foreign Secretary David Miliband is fresh to foreign affairs and only 41, and could be forgiven for regarding such a remark as highly inappropriate.

Only a few days ago Lord Malloch Brown was called in to see Miliband, apparently, and sharply criticized for some remarks he had made on Hamas and Hezbollah. He had suggested in The Lords that negotiations might be held with Hamas and Hezbollah. This is a minefield. Current government policy is that no formal talks will be held with Hamas until it recognizes Israel and ends its campaign of violence against Israel. That said, British diplomats have in the past talked to mayors elected on a Hamas ticket. Labour Friends of Israel keep a close eye on this matter. This organization grew in strength under Tony Blair, and is likely to continue to do so under Gordon Brown, whose father had close links with Israel in his day.

Yet another criticism has emerged in the press, first in The Spectator, which is a weekly on the right of the political spectrum. It suggested that Lord Malloch Brown was still using a “grace and favor” flat for free in Admiralty House. He had refused requests from a senior ministerial colleague in the Lords to move out. Who knows the facts? But it is a dangerous allegation for him, suggesting a new minister whose political sensitivity is missing.

Ken Purchase, a Labour MP and former parliamentary private secretary to a foreign secretary, told The Observer:

“Malloch Brown is a very experienced man, highly respected, was always prepared to create waves at the UN and he did that well and properly. In political life it is somewhat different and he has to learn those lessons.”

I thought Lord Malloch Brown’s appointment to the Foreign Office was imaginative and he will have brought fresh thinking into it. However, he is in danger of being quietly dropped at the first ministerial reshuffle unless he adapts his style to his new role in government. Political life in Britain is extremely difficult.

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