The most senior British diplomat in Washington has admitted that the much-vaunted “special relationship” between the United Kingdom and the United States does not exist and that the only country to which America is meaningfully bound is Israel.
The remarks, made in February at a private event with visiting British students, were first reported by the Financial Times yesterday and have since been confirmed by multiple outlets. They appeared in print hours before King Charles and Queen Camilla were received at the White House by President Donald Trump.
“I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States,” Sir Christian Turner can be heard saying on the leaked audio, “and that is probably Israel.”
Turner went on to describe the phrase “special relationship” — coined by Winston Churchill in 1946 and treated for almost eight decades as a load-bearing pillar of British foreign policy — as “nostalgic”, “backwards-looking” and laden with “a lot of sort of baggage”. He suggested that British and American ties would have to be redefined as Europe reconsiders its dependence on US security guarantees.
Turner’s words confirm what Washington’s critics have argued for years: that US foreign policy is structured around its commitment to Israel in a manner that has no parallel in any other bilateral relationship, including with its formal allies in NATO and the Commonwealth.
READ: Is Israel becoming a strategic liability for the US?
The admission comes when that very relationship is being challenged in the US itself, more openly than at any point in living memory. Over the past year, the US has been drawn into two wars with Iran. Both are interpreted by the American public, including by figures on the populist right, as an Israeli war into which Washington was dragged.
What is viewed as America’s special relationship with Israel has fractured support for the apartheid state in the US and inside Donald Trump’s MAGA coalition, with prominent voices in that movement now arguing that American troops, treasure and prestige are being expended in service of objectives set in Tel Aviv rather than in Washington.
Polling reflects the shift. A Pew Research Center survey published this month found that 60 per cent of Americans now hold an unfavourable view of Israel, with the figure rising to 80 per cent among Democrats and 57 per cent among Republicans aged 18 to 49. In February, Gallup recorded a watershed moment: for the first time in the 25 years it has tracked the question, more Americans expressed sympathy for the Palestinians than for the Israelis.
A British Foreign Office spokesperson told the press on Tuesday that Turner’s comments were “private, informal” and “not any reflection of the UK Government’s position”, insisting that the bilateral relationship with Washington remains “strong” and rooted in defence and intelligence cooperation.
READ: Are Israeli-American relations losing their special status?
