James Cleverly has been accused by colleagues of treating his job as foreign secretary like “a continuous photoshoot”.
Senior civil servants and Tory backbenchers have said Mr Cleverly is not working to represent the “hard interests” of Britain or Rishi Sunak’s policies.
Weeks after the foreign secretary warned the prime minister that he wants to “stay put” amid talk of a cabinet reshuffle, government figures said they were frustrated that the UK’s ambassadors in some countries appear to be more focused on local development than on British interests such as trade and migration.
Others said they were concerned about the lack of a tough approach to Iran.
A government minister told The Daily Telegraph that Mr Cleverly’s approach amounted to “Let’s go on a tour of the Pacific islands or somewhere in South America.”
“I don’t understand how little interest the Foreign Office seems to have in the hard interests of the country. The true priorities of the country are counterterrorism, illegal immigration, and trade. That’s what they should be focusing on,” the minister said.
A second government figure said Mr Cleverly was reluctant to deliver “difficult messages” to diplomats representing some of Britain’s allies in cases where countries were not cooperating with the UK on certain issues.
And a senior Tory told the paper: “For him, it’s a continuous photoshoot.”
This month, Mr Cleverly told Mr Sunak that he wants to remain foreign secretary, as speculation mounted over an imminent cabinet reshuffle.
During a relaxed interview in Aspen, Colorado, Mr Cleverly said: “I adore being foreign secretary. I think that my observation is that you become better at the job the more you do it, the more relationships you are able to build.
“If anyone in the UK is watching, listening – particularly you, Prime Minister – I very much want to stay put.”
He has been tipped as a contender to replace Ben Wallace at the Ministry of Defence.
Mr Cleverly has recently been pictured in traditional Kazakh dress, shooting a bow and arrow and holding a falcon. He also had a slick video produced after a Caribbean and South American tour, in which he cooked a Brazilian dish.
Two weeks ago, Mr Cleverly tweeted a series of pictures of himself wearing a variety of colourful shirts at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
An ally of Mr Cleverly said critics had seized on a small handful of the tens of trips he has made since becoming foreign secretary in September. The ally said: “A lot of James’s job is winning arguments for votes at international fora on things, including against Russia.”
