Leaked audio has caught Britain's ambassador to Washington, Sir Christian Turner, telling students that the phrase "special relationship" is "backwards-looking", and that the US probably has only one true ally of that kind, Israel, not the UK. The remarks, made in February and obtained by the Financial Times, threaten to overshadow King Charles III's state visit to the US this week as they revive questions about Britain's standing with its most important ally.
In comments made to a group of UK students in February, Turner said he disliked the phrase "special relationship" to describe Anglo-American ties, calling it "quite nostalgic, quite backwards-looking, and it has a lot of baggage about it."
