Starmer’s new US ambassador says PM is ‘on the ropes’ and America’s only ‘special relationship’ is with Israel

Britain’s ambassador to the US has admitted Keir Starmer is ‘on the hook’ over the Peter Mandelson scandal and could be sacked by Labor MPs next month.

Christian Turner, who replaced Lord Mandelson as Britain’s top diplomat in Washington DC, suggested the Prime Minister could be ‘taken down’ over the row.

In leaked comments that would be hugely embarrassing for Sir Keir, Sir Christian outlined how Labor MPs could ‘remove’ the Prime Minister from Downing Street after local elections on 7 May.

He also belittled the so-called ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the US, saying America’s only ‘special relationship’ was ‘probably with Israel’.

The emergence of a recording of Sir Christian’s remarks, said to have been made in mid-February, shortly after he took office, was a major headache for the Prime Minister and took place during King Charles’s state visit to America this week.

Sir Keir has vowed to remain Prime Minister until the 2030s, despite growing unrest among Labor MPs over his appointment of Lord Mandelson and his handling of the resulting scandal.

He has also repeatedly defended the “special relationship” between Britain and America in the face of US President Donald Trump’s frequent attacks on him over the Iran war.

Sir Christian was appointed as Britain’s new ambassador to the US in December last year after Lord Mandelson, Sir Keir’s first pick for the post, was sacked over his links to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In leaked remarks that would be hugely embarrassing for Keir Starmer, Sir Christian outlined how Labor MPs could ‘remove’ the Prime Minister from Downing Street after local elections on 7 May.

Sir Christian was appointed as Britain’s new ambassador to the US in December last year, following the sacking of Peter Mandelson (pictured) over his links to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Shortly after officially taking over at the beginning of February, Sir Christian was revealed to have told British students visiting Washington that it was “remarkable” that the Epstein scandal “didn’t touch anyone” in the US.

In a record where opinions were recorded, Finance Timeslong-serving diplomat noted how Scandal ‘brought down a senior member of the royal family’ [Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor]’The British ambassador to Washington, potentially the Prime Minister and yet here in the US this hasn’t really touched anyone’.

Sir Christian added that the row over the appointment of his predecessor, Lord Mandelson, as US ambassador was a ‘crisis’ that ‘nearly brought down the Government and ended the Prime Minister’s tenure’.

Of Sir Keir, he said he was ‘quite clearly on the ropes at one stage’ and that the Prime Minister’s future looked ‘quite poignant’.

Sir Christian said the Prime Minister was a “stubborn man” who was unlikely to resign, but added that it was “quite difficult” to find the 80 or so Labor MPs required under party rules.

However, he continued: ‘The moment I will look to is the May elections.

‘If Labor performs very poorly… I suspect the party might cross that threshold and sack him; That seems to me to be the conventional wisdom.’

He continued: ‘If things go well, he can move on… That applies to me as a speculating citizen because I have to serve whoever is there.’

Photograph of Sir Christian greeting US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during the King’s state visit on Tuesday

It was also revealed that Sir Christian did not like the term ‘special relationship’ when describing UK-US ties, saying it was ‘quite nostalgic, quite backward-looking and carries a lot of baggage about it’.

“I think there’s probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States, and that’s probably Israel,” he added.

Sir Christian’s remarks are said to have been made during a question-and-answer session with students on diplomacy and politics and were never intended as an on-the-record statement about Government policy.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘These were private, unofficial comments made to a group of UK sixth form students visiting the US in early February.

‘They are certainly not a reflection of the UK Government’s position.’