Britain’s new ambassador to Washington privately trashed the idea of a “special relationship” between the U.K. and U.S. as “backwards-looking” and claimed the U.S. now reserves that designation for Israel in newly leaked audio.
The Financial Timesfirst reportedon AmbassadorChristian Turner’scomments, which were made in February to a group of high school students visiting the U.S. The leaked audio was made public Tuesday, the same dayKing Charles IIIbegan his multi-day visit to Washington, which Turner is present for.
Turner can reportedly be heard candidly telling the students he “dislikes the phrase ‘special relationship,’” describing it as “quite nostalgic.”
“it’s quite backwards-looking, and it has a lot of baggage about it,” he said.
He added that there is “probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States and that is probably Israel,” suggesting Britain’s ties with Washington are “going to have to be different.”
🚨 BREAKING: The new UK ambassador to the US, Christian Turner, privately said that the US "special relationship" is with Israel, not the UK
The leak risks overshadowing the King's state visit
[@FT]pic.twitter.com/HSMgRB1MlX
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK)April 28, 2026
The diplomat also drew attention to the fallout from theJeffrey Epsteinfiles, calling it “extraordinary” that it had “brought down a senior member of the royal family, a British ambassador to Washington, potentially the prime minister, and yet here in the U.S., it really hasn’t touched anybody.”
Source: Drudge Report
