FOREIGN OFFICE officials have turned on Lord Malloch-Brown, their minister, describing him as a “liability” for the government.

Malloch-Brown, a former United Nations official brought into government by Gordon Brown, has fallen out with some diplomats who have dubbed him “Bollock-Brown” for his off-message views.

The minister has clashed with David Miliband, the foreign secretary, and caused embarrassment for Brown before the prime minister’s trip to Washington by saying that Britain and America would no longer be “joined at the hip”.

Malloch-Brown is said to have been reprimanded by Miliband for suggesting the British government was about to open talks with Hamas and Hezbollah, the Islamic militant groups, and was forced to “clarify” his remarks in the House of Lords, which irritated Labour Friends of Israel, the campaign group.

He has also referred to Burma as “Myanmar”, a name recognised by the UN but not by Britain and America.

“Gordon won’t be brave enough to sack him. It would look like the whole thing’s been a mistake, but Malloch-Brown will probably resign in the end because he feels frustrated that he is not getting the recognition and the things done he wanted to,” said a Foreign Office official.

Brown made great play of appointing Malloch-Brown, former chief of staff at the UN, in June as he brought outsiders into his government “of all the talents”. The appointment angered Washington which was aware of his opposition to the Iraq war and hostility towards the “neo-cons” around George W Bush.

Malloch-Brown, who is paid £81,504 a year, has also upset colleagues by strolling into meetings with foreign dignitaries even though he has not been invited. A critique of the minister appeared last week in The Spectator magazine, questioning his continued use of a grace-and-favour apartment in Admiralty House on Whitehall which was once used by John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister. Only two other members of the government — Brown and Alistair Darling, the chancellor — have grace-and-favour homes.

The article quoted Brown as having confided to colleagues that if he “had known it would cause such a fuss, I wouldn’t have appointed him”. It added that Malloch-Brown is “viewed in Washington as viscerally anti-American”. Foreign Office officials and allies of Miliband thought the article “bang on”.

The Tories have also sought to exploit Malloch-Brown’s deal over his apartment which the government defended by saying he needed accommodation after returning from abroad. Eric Pickles, a shadow cabinet minister, has put down parliamentary questions demanding to know how much it is costing the Foreign Office and taxpayer after the government initially claimed that it was a temporary arrangement.

In an interview to be broadcast today, the prime minister seeks to bolster Britain’s relationship with the United States, describing Washington as “our most important ally”, and refuses to rule out support for a bombing campaign against Iran. He tells Sunday Live on Sky News: “Iran is breaking its commitments that have been made freely under the non-proliferation treaty.”

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