Michael Gove has laughed off the suggestion that he could be a future ambassador to Washington after his interview with Donald Trump.
He also praised the work done by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in forging links with the incoming Trump administration.
The senior Tory, whose alliance with Mr Johnson during the Brexit campaign spectacularly collapsed in the jostling to replace David Cameron after the referendum, said the Foreign Secretary was doing a "very good job indeed".
The former education secretary became the second prominent British politician, after ex-Ukip leader Nigel Farage, to meet the US President-elect at Trump Tower.
Mr Trump later suggested that Mr Farage would do a "great job" as ambassador to Washington.
But Mr Gove laughed at the suggestion that he too could be a candidate for the post of British ambassador, instead highlighting the "fantastic" work being done in the role by Sir Kim Darroch.
"I think you can probably tell from my instinctive reaction to that that, wonderful though the Foreign Office is, it is probably better off without me as one of its ambassadors," he told BBC Radio 4's Today.
"We have got Kim Darroch doing a fantastic job in Washington, by all accounts. Certainly, from the encounters I have had with him, he is a first-class diplomat."
Mr Gove's decision to stand for the Tory leadership in the wake of Mr Cameron's resignation effectively torpedoed Mr Johnson's own effort to secure the keys to Number 10.
After Theresa May's victory in the leadership race, Mr Johnson was made Foreign Secretary and visited New York and Washington earlier this month to meet key players in the Trump team.
Mr Gove said: "I think Boris is doing a very good job indeed. One of the things that I was told while I was there is that the relationship that Boris had forged with members of the Trump team had been strong and they appreciated his combination of friendliness and candour."
