If Trump quits UN so should we, says Staffordshire MP
Britain should consider quitting the United Nations if Donald Trump decides to pull the US out, a Tory MP has said.
Michael Fabricant believes the UK may be wise to follow America "out of the door" unless there are radical reforms to the UN, which he has accused of a litany of failings.
President Trump halted US funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO), saying the UN body had failed in its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The move follows a long line of spats between the US and UN agencies, and has prompted speculation that it may pull out altogether.
Lichfield MP Mr Fabricant said the loss of the US would reduce UN funding by almost a quarter, making it even more reliant on its next biggest contributor, China.
"If the UN still were to prove itself incapable of reform even after the Americans have left, a British exit could spark an exodus of similar like-minded liberal democracies, leaving the UN as nothing more than a fig leaf for the world’s dictatorships," he said.
"In such a scenario, Britain should be at the forefront of crafting new international institutions which seek to foster global cooperation to tackle the pressing issues we face, but without the kind of wastage and moral hypocrisy so exemplified by the UN.
"If there’s one thing these past few years of politics have taught us, it’s that nothing, no matter how unprecedented, can be ruled out.
"There may come a day when the US leaves the UN. I would regret it. But it may come to that.
"To ensure a new institution supplants the UN in the same way the UN swept away the failed League of Nations, the UK could once again lead from the front."
Mr Fabricant said that the UN "repeatedly fails to live up to the values and standards it was set up to defend".
He said it had "shamelessly" failed to stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda or the "bloodbath" in Syria, adding that the UN "frequently cannot even bring its own institutions to condemn the governments that carry out such atrocities".
Should the US quit, he added: "I believe we would have to make it clear to the UN that if radical reform is not forthcoming; we would follow the Americans out of the door."
Britain currently contributes around 4.5 per cent of the UN's annual budget.
