{"id":555383,"date":"2026-04-28T17:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/555383\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T17:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T17:12:13","slug":"america-has-special-relationship-with-israel-now-uks-new-us-ambassador-says-keir-starmer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/555383\/","title":{"rendered":"America has special relationship with Israel now, UK\u2019s new US ambassador says | Keir Starmer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK\u2019s new ambassador to the US has described Keir Starmer as having been \u201con the ropes\u201d over the Peter Mandelson<\/a> scandal and said it is Israel rather than Britain that has a \u201cspecial relationship\u201d with the White House.<\/p>\n

Christian Turner, who took office in February to replace Mandelson as the UK\u2019s most senior diplomat in Washington, made the remarks privately to a group of students visiting the US in the same month he was appointed.<\/p>\n

His remarks are embarrassing for Downing Street because they emerged in the same week that the king is carrying out his state visit under the president, Donald Trump, who has previously described Mandelson as a \u201creally bad pick\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mandelson was sacked by the prime minister last year for misleading him over the depth of his friendship with the late child sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

Turner, 53, told the students it was \u201cextraordinary\u201d that the Epstein scandal \u201chasn\u2019t touched anybody\u201d in the US, while it had \u201cbrought down\u201d Mandelson and \u201cpotentially the prime minister\u201d, the Financial Times<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

The ambassador also said in February that Keir Starmer may be ousted as prime minister if Labour does badly in the May elections. Photograph: Phil Noble\/Reuters<\/p>\n

He said Starmer had at one point been \u201cpretty clearly on the ropes\u201d and his future had looked \u201cquite touch and go\u201d over the fallout from the scandal, adding that Starmer was a \u201cstubborn guy\u201d who would be unlikely to quit of his own accord. \u201cThe moment I would look to is the May elections,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Labour does very badly \u2026 \u2009I suspect the party will be able to go over that threshold and remove him \u2013 seems to me to be the conventional thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf they do OK, he might carry on going \u2026 that\u2019s just for me as a citizen speculating because I have to serve whomever is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the \u201cspecial relationship\u201d, Turner said it was \u201cquite nostalgic, it\u2019s quite backwards-looking and it has a lot of baggage about it\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States \u2013 and that is probably Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following publication of the remarks on Tuesday, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: \u201cThese 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\u2019s position.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Whitehall source said the discussion was informal and focused on questions from students about diplomacy and the political issues of the day, and had clearly been never intended as an on-the-record statement of government policy.<\/p>\n

No 10 had no immediate comment on Turner\u2019s remarks, which were unusually candid for a diplomat.<\/p>\n

Turner, right, with the king and queen and his wife, Claire Turner, during the royals\u2019 state visit to the US on Monday. Photograph: Ian Vogler\/Daily Mirror\/PA<\/p>\n

Turner was appointed as a supposedly safe pair of hands as a career civil servant and diplomat after the disastrous political appointment of Mandelson. He was chosen over Starmer\u2019s business adviser, Varun Chandra, who instead took on an expanded role in Downing Street, and Nigel Casey, the ambassador to Russia.<\/p>\n

Chandra was initially considered favourite for the high-profile post, but Olly Robbins, formerly the most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office, is understood to have lobbied against another political appointment.<\/p>\n

Robbins was dismissed by the prime minister earlier this month over his failure to tell him that Mandelson had failed security vetting \u2013 although Robbins maintains it was standard procedure to put in place mitigations and it was not as simple as a pass or fail test.<\/p>\n

At the time of Turner\u2019s appointment, the prime minister said: \u201cI\u2019m delighted that Christian Turner has been appointed to be British ambassador to the United States of America.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United Kingdom and United States have a very special relationship, and Christian\u2019s extensive experience as an outstanding diplomat will support this uniquely close bond and ensure it continues to flourish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI warmly congratulate him as he starts his work to further build our strong economic and security ties and deliver for the British people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner was previously ambassador to the UN, and had been political director at the Foreign Office. He brokered a close relationship with the new Labour administration before taking up his UN role in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s new ambassador to the US has described Keir Starmer as having been \u201con the ropes\u201d over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-555383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}