The UK’s ambassador to the US has said in private comments that America’s only special relationship is ‘probably’ with Israel.
In leaked comments published by the Financial Times, Christian Turner, who replaced Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, said he wasn’t a fan of the phrase ‘special relationship’ to describe the relationship between the UK and US.
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Speaking to a group of British six-form students visiting the US in February, Turner said he thought the term ‘special relationship’ was “quite nostalgic, quite backwards-looking and it has a lot of baggage about it.”
He added: “I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States and that is probably Israel.”
The comments were made in the weeks leading up to the joint US-Israeli military action on Iran.
Responding to the comments, a UK government spokesperson told the FT: “These were private, informal comments made to a group of UK sixth-form students visiting the US in early February. They are certainly not any reflection of the UK government’s position.”
US ambassador casts doubt on Starmer’s future as PM
These weren’t the only controversial comments Turner made to the students.
The FT reports that he also said prime minister Keir Starmer had been “on the ropes” over the Mandelson scandal and that his future as PM had looked “touch and go.”
Looking ahead, Turner also suggested the Labour leader could be forced out of office by MPs after May’s local elections.
After describing Starmer as “a stubborn guy,” who was unlikely to quit of his own accord, he said: “The moment I would look to is the May elections.”
Turner said he “suspects” the threshold of 80 Labour MPs calling for Starmer’s resignation could be reached “if Labour does very badly in the May elections.
“I suspect the party will move to get over that threshold and remove him,” he said. “It seems to be the conventional thinking. If they do okay, he might carry on going.”
The leaked comments come amid a state visit to the US from King Charles and Queen Camilla.