New Zealand's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Phil Goff, has been sacked for questioning US President Donald Trump's grasp of history.

Goff, foreign and defence minister in Helen Clark's government, will leave the role under orders from Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

Goff made the comments at an event held by the international affairs think tank Chatham House in London on Tuesday.

Goff asked a question from the audience of the guest speaker, Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, in which he said he had been re-reading a famous speech by former British wartime leader Winston Churchill from 1938, when Churchill was an MP in the government of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

Churchill's speech rebuked Britain's signing of the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler, allowing Germany to annex part of Czechoslovakia.

Goff quoted Churchill as saying to Chamberlain, “You had the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor, yet you will have war.”

Goff then asked Valtonen: “President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?”

As the audience chuckled at the New Zealand envoy's question, Valtonen said she would “limit myself” to saying that Churchill “has made very timeless remarks,” according to video of the event published by New Zealand news outlets.

Made aware of the comments, Peters' office confirmed he would be removed from the job for the slight.

Valtonen's speech was billed as covering Finland’s approach to European security at an event entitled ‘Keeping the peace on NATO’s longest border with Russia.’

Foreign Minister Winston Peters said that Goff’s remarks were “deeply disappointing".

"They do not represent the views of the NZ Government and make his position as High Commissioner to London untenable.

"If he'd have made that comment about Germany, France, Tonga or Samoa then I would have been forced to act. 

"It's not the way you behave as the front face of the country, diplomatically."

Peters, who said he was yet to speak with Goff on the matter, has asked his department secretary to prepare a leadership transition.

Goff has been New Zealand’s envoy to the UK since January 2023. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On social media, Clark said it was a "a very thin excuse for sacking a highly respected former #NZ Foreign Minister from his post".

However, the move shows the reticence from many foreign governments to be seen as criticising the returned US president, who has broken from conventional diplomatic norms.

Trump has called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator who started the war with Russia, and has launched a series of verbal conflicts with US allies.

This week, Prime Minister Chris Luxon said he trusted Trump, but would directly challenge the imposition of any tariffs thrust upon New Zealand.

Goff, also a former Labour leader and Auckland mayor, was appointed to the plum diplomatic post by Jacinda Ardern's government in 2022.

His tenure was called into question around the time of King Charles' coronation in 2023, when he disrespected Maoridom by telling an official function that nobody had experienced a coronation before.

Goff apologised after he was informed that for Tuhetia, the Maori King, who was present, it was his third coronation.

Peters said that blunder was "a terrible mistake" but his sacking was solely down to his Trump comment.

"When you are in that position, you represent the government and the policies of the day. You're not able to freethink," he said.