Fury at Downing Street as Donald Trump attempts to dictate Ambassador role for Nigel Farage

DONALD Trump’s call for Nigel Farage to made Britain’s Ambassador to the US sparked a bitter backlash of fury in Downing Street.

The President Elect stunned Whitehall with a late-night protocol-smashing tweet declaring that Mr Farage would do a “great job” and that “many people” wanted to see him as the UK’s most senior diplomat in Washington.

But a furious Cabinet Minister hit back telling The Sun: “It is outrageous that this man should seek to dictate who we decide to send and where.

“If he really wanted Farage in Washington — which would never happen anyway — the worst thing he could possibly do was to back the idea publicly.”

No10 also moved quickly to say that there “was no vacancy” and current Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch was doing “a fantastic job and will continue to do so”.

And they stressed “we appoint our ambassadors” rather than letting other countries who we send.

In a powerful signal to the Trump Tower, it later emerged that that Sir Kim was in London on Tuesday and had met with the PM.

But last night a rift had opened at the top of government as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson warned against any “hostile” attacks on the President Elect, claiming they risked threatening British interests.

He told the Commons that “premature hostile judgments of the administration-elect… could be damaging to the interests of this country.”

He added: “It is important for us in this country to use our influence, which is very considerable, to help the United States.”

Mr Farage welcomed the latest backing from Donald Trump that came less than a week after the pair met in New York following the property mogal’s shock presidential win.

He said yesterday “The world has changed and it’s time that Downing Street did too.”

The Ukip boss described Mr Trump’s suggestion that he could be ambassador as “a bolt from the blue”, claiming it showed the President Elect was “a very loyal man and supports those that stand by him”.

He added: “Sadly, the cesspit that is career politics understands nothing of this.

“In their world the concept of trust is transitory.”

He went on: “At every stage I am greeted by negative comments coming out of Downing Street.

“The dislike of me, Ukip, and the referendum result is more important to them than what could be good for our country.

“I have known several of the Trump team for years and I am in a good position with the President-elect’s support to help.”

His key supporters also called on Downing Street to give Mr Farage a big Brexit job.

Former UKIP aide Raheem Kassam told the BBC: “If Britain wants to go to the front of queue for a trade deal with the USA, then Nigel is the one man that can help us do that.”

But the outrage was not simply confined to Westminster, with Belgian EU parliament boss Guy Verhofstadt tweeting: “One clown in Washington is more than enough.”

Last night Mr Farage reportedly told a fellow MEP to “f--- off” when he was jokingly greeted as “ambassador” in the European Parliament.

There was further controversy last night when Donald Trump hinted he used his meeting with Nigel Farage to rage against offshore wind farms in the UK.

Concerns have already been raised about the President Elect’s apparent willingness to blur the lines between elected office and his business interests.

Mr Trump has long been a critic of offshore wind farms, having fought against such a project near his Aberdeenshire golf resort.

Andy Wigmore, who was head of communications for Leave.EU, was present at Mr Farage’s meeting with Mr Trump said: "One thing Mr Trump kept returning to was the issue of wind farms.”

The President Elect told reporters last night: “I might have brought it up.”