Republican senator tells David Cameron not to 'lecture' the US

Senator Mike Lee said US lawmakers do not need a 'lecture' from the Foreign Secretary - Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc.

A Republican senator allied to Donald Trump accused David Cameron of “hypocrisy” over his position on Israel and Palestinian statehood.

Senator Mike Lee also said US lawmakers did not need a “lecture” from the Foreign Secretary on the need to approve $60 billion of defence funding for Ukraine.

Last month, Lord Cameron told a meeting of Arab ambassadors in London that Britain would “look at the issue of recognising a Palestinian state” to see whether it could help to secure “irreversible” progress towards a two-state solution.

The comment has proved contentious in American conservative circles, with the former US national security adviser John Bolton saying it put a “knife in Israel’s back” at a time when it was responding to a terrorist attack comparable to 9/11.

Senator Lee, who represents Utah, told The Telegraph: “You can’t claim to be a staunch ally of Israel and at the same time argue that the terrorists waging war against Israel be given legitimacy via nation state.

“Hypocrisy seems to be a consistent problem for those who consider themselves part of the global elite. Mr Cameron is no exception.”

The Foreign Secretary last week wrote an article for the Washington newspaper, The Hill, urging Congress to pass the Ukraine funding package and suggesting that the West otherwise risked repeating the “weakness displayed against Hitler in the 1930s”.

Trump-supporting Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene was not impressed by what Lord Cameron had to say - MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock/Shutterstock

A bill promising $60 billion has passed the Senate, but Republican leaders are threatening to block it in the House of Representatives.

Asked about the article, Senator Lee said: “It is incredibly easy to demand the US pass another $60 billion aid package when you’re not accountable to the taxpayers footing the bill.

“Mr Cameron’s piece spills over with emotional pleas, but glosses over major concerns of the American people, like why Ukraine’s border security and Europe’s defences seem to matter more than our own.

“Respectfully, lawmakers in Congress don’t need a lecture from European global elites to know what best serves US national security interests.”

Writing in The Telegraph, the former Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick said Europe needed to change tack when engaging the US on security.

Mr Jenrick said that a tweet in which the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said “shame on you” to the Republicans who voted against the Ukraine bill was “spectacularly ill-judged”.

Last week, a Trump-supporting Republican in the House of Representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene, told Lord Cameron to “kiss my a–” following his article in The Hill.

Asked about the comment at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Lord Cameron said: “I’m not going to respond, anatomically, if I can put it that way.”

He added: “I completely understand the importance of recognising political pressures in other countries.

“My message to Americans is not, you know, please help us, this is good for Britain, or this is good for Europe, or it’s good for Ukraine. Although all of those things are true. My message is this is good for America.”