Keir Starmer humiliated as new US ambassador predicts PM could be ousted
Lord Mandelson's successor said the Labour leader was 'on the ropes' earlier this year
Britain's ambassador to the US predicted Sir Keir Starmer could be ousted if the local elections are a bloodbath for Labour. Sir Christian Turner admitted the Prime Minister was "pretty clearly on the ropes" and his future looked "quite touch and go" at one point in February amid the Lord Mandelson scandal.
In leaked remarks to British students visiting the US that month, he highlighted that Labour's rules to remove a sitting PM require 80 MPs to "sign a letter in public, which is like signing a death warrant". Sir Christian, who succeeded Lord Mandelson in the Washington role, noted that Sir Keir was "a stubborn guy" and unlikely to quit.
But in the comments reported by the Financial Times, he added: "The moment I would look to is the May elections. If Labour does very badly ... I suspect the party will be able to go over that threshold and remove him – seems to me to be the conventional thinking."
The highly embarrassing remarks for the Prime Minister have emerged as the King is making a state visit to the US.
Sir Christian also played down the special relationship between the UK and the US.
He said it was “quite nostalgic, it’s quite backwards-looking, and it has a lot of baggage about it".
He added: “I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States – and that is probably Israel.”
Sir Christian also said it was “extraordinary” the scandal over the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein “hasn’t touched anybody” in the US.
In contrast in the UK, the controversy had “brought down” the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Lord Mandelson.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "These 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's position."
