LONDON: Israel, rather than the UK, is the country that enjoys a “special relationship” with the United States, Britain´s ambassador to Washington recently remarked, according to a Financial Times report on Tuesday.
Christian Turner´s comments have come to light at an awkward moment for US-UK ties, with King Charles III visiting US President Donald Trump in Washington in a bid to repair relations between the two historic allies.
Speaking to British students visiting Washington in mid-February, the ambassador expressed his dislike of the phrase “special relationship”, typically used to describe the British-American alliance, according to the FT.
Turner -- who was appointed in December 2025 to replace Peter Mandelson after he was sacked over his ties to the late convicted US sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein -- reportedly told the students he found the term “quite nostalgic” and “backwards-looking”. “I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States -- and that is probably Israel,” Turner added.
When contacted by AFP, the UK foreign ministry called the remarks “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,” the Foreign Office added.
Relations between London and Washington have deteriorated since the beginning of the Middle East war, with Trump lashing out at UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer´s refusal to offer greater backing for the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
The king´s state visit has been seen as an attempt by London to appease the Trump administration, which has recently threatened to pull the plug on the US-UK trade deal agreed last year.
