UK ambassador to US admits Americans’ only ‘special relationship’ is with Israel

Christian Turner is the man who replaced the disgraced Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US. He’s proven less controversial than his predecessor, but that may be about to change:

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WATCH: In leaked comments, the UK’s ambassador to the US predicted Labour MPs will oust Keir Starmer as Prime Minister after the local elections

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Turner is likely going to attract even stronger criticism too, because he also said:

I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States — and that is probably Israel.

While this is obviously the case, the idea that a UK ambassador to the US would admit this is wild.

Starmergeddon – once again, thanks to a UK ambassador

The recording of Turner was made in February. As reported by the FT, Turner was still settling into his role, and was talking to a group of students.

While we agree with most of what Turner is recorded as saying, it is – shall we say – unconventional that a senior diplomat would be so forthcoming with a group of young adults.

Speaking about Starmer, Turner said:

To get to a threshold where you remove a prime minister from the Labour Party, according to Labour Party rules… is really quite hard.

80 MPs have to sign a letter in public, which is like signing your death warrant. It’s much harder than for Tories. So I think that is still quite difficult.

And Keir personally is – as you know – he’s a stubborn guy. He’s never lost a fight he’s in. And so I think Keir saying “I’m quitting” is quite a high bar.

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This last point is a moment of disagreement for us, because we still remember Starmer’s many u-turns.

Turner continued:

So probably the moment I would look to is the May elections. If Labour does very badly in the May elections, I suspect the party will move to get over that threshold and remove him. It seems to be the conventional thinking.  If they do okay, he might carry on going.

We’re pretty confident they won’t do okay at this point. We’re pretty confident that they won’t do ‘badly’, either; they’re going to do much worse than that:

Turner also said:

For me – that’s just me as a citizen, speculating – because I have to serve with whomever is there.

So it’s a glowing recommendation from Keir’s man in Washington then.

And the controversial comments don’t stop there.

Special relationship

As reported by the FT:

During a question-and-answer session, Turner said he disliked the phrase “special relationship” to describe Anglo-American ties, complaining that it was “quite nostalgic, it’s 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 running up to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran that began the current conflict in the Middle East.

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We know that the government didn’t properly vet Mandelson; we’re beginning to suspect they didn’t vet Turner either.

He’s absolutely correct in what he’s said, but there’s no way Starmer would have hired this guy if he knew the man would be spitting truths like this in the lair of the Great Satan.

To be completely fair, Turner hasn’t given up on the ‘special’ rhetoric, telling the students:

There is a deep history and affinity between us. Particularly on defence and security, we are intertwined.

And also:

The relationship will carry on, if you want, being ‘special’, but I think it’s going to have to be different.

So not ‘special’ as in ‘good’ then.

Scandalopalypse

Turner dipped his toes in other hot waters too – this time the Epstein scandal. As reported by the FT:

Turner answered questions about the Epstein scandal and the contrast in how it had played out on either side of the Atlantic.

He said it appeared to him “extraordinary” that the scandal over the convicted sex offender had “brought down a senior member of the royal family [Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor], a British ambassador to Washington, potentially the prime minister, and yet here in the US, it really hasn’t touched anybody

Again, Turner is absolutely correct.

Again, it’s wild he’s the one saying it.

These comments are so shocking because the key US politician embroiled in the Epstein scandal is president Donald Trump. If Keir Starmer knew his ambassador to the US would be asking how Teflon Don wriggled out of it again, he would have deployed James Bond to retire the guy.

And as a reminder, this was in a question and answer session with students.

Students!

Just imagine the sort of things Turner is saying at functions when he’s got a couple of piss-weak American beers in him.

Private comments from the UK ambassador

In response to the leaked comments, a spokesperson from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said:

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.

This is a problem then, isn’t it, because Turner’s job is to represent the government’s position in the US.

He had one job!

The FT approached Turner for comment too, but he didn’t get back to them. Given his previous comments, we can’t wait to see what he comes back with.

Featured image via The Canary

By Willem Moore

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