Tony Blair turned up for Donald Trump’s ‘peace board’ launch today despite a snub from the UK government.
The former PM was namechecked by the US president at the ceremony in Davos, where he hailed the level of interest in participating.
Sir Tony is an executive member of the board alongside Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The launch came just hours after Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Britain would not be participating as there were ‘concerns’ about the invite for Vladimir Putin to join the body.
Almost all other European nations are also holding off, with fears of a new standoff developing after a tentative solution was found to the bitter spat over Mr Trump’s demands for Greenland.
Critics have warned that the organisation – which has a £1billion fee for permanent membership – appears to be an attempt to supplant the UN.
Originally meant to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza after the war between Hamas and Israel, the board’s charter makes no reference to the Middle East crisis.
Key US allies have expressed scepticism, with France outright refusing to participate and Italy also delaying a decision.
Denmark – at the heart of the row over Mr Trump’s Greenland grab – has not been invited even though Russian puppet regime Belarus is on the list.
Hungary could be the only European nation to join the board at the ceremony today.
Other major countries have signed up, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
About 35 world leaders have committed so far out of the 60 or so invitations that went out, according to the Trump administration.
Mr Trump insisted last night that Putin had agreed to join, but the Kremlin has so far said it is still studying the invite.
Ms Cooper told BBC Breakfast: ‘There’s a huge amount of work to do we won’t be one of the signatories today, because this is about a legal treaty that raises much broader issues, and we do also have concerns about President Putin being part of something which is talking about peace, when we have still not seen any signs from Putin that there will be a commitment to peace in Ukraine.
‘And to be honest, that is also what we should be talking about.’
Kemi Badenoch told Sky News she agreed with the government’s caution over the board.
‘Right now we should not be serving on any board with Vladimir Putin. That is something I am completely against,’ she said.
