Trump ‘factually wrong’ over critical claims about UK, says British ambassador

Britain’s ambassador to the US used a speech at an event in Washington celebrating the King’s birthday to tell Donald Trump he is “factually wrong” over critical claims he has made about the UK.

The thinly-veiled rebuke by Sir Christian Turner in which he rejected “distorted narratives and forces of division” comes after the US president recently repeated his charge that parts of London were lawless “no-go” areas as a result of migration, where the police were “afraid” to patrol.

Mr Trump warned last month that if the UK failed to “stop people pouring into your country from all over the world, you’re not going to have a country left”.

US vice president JD Vance has also stoked controversy over his remarks about the UK, blaming the murder of student Henry Nowak in Southampton on “the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants” while urging anti-immigration protesters to “keep on going”.

The King and Sir Christian Turner (blue tie) at a garden party at the British embassy in Washington DC earlier this year (Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror/PA)

PA Wire

He was also among influential US figures to accuse the UK of curbing free speech.

These criticisms were strongly rejected by Sir Christian in his address at the King’s Birthday Party held at the embassy in the US capital on Wednesday evening, where the guests included the Duke of Edinburgh, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent and US secretary of the interior Doug Burgum.

In a section of the speech entitled “Taking on the detractors”, the top diplomat said: “To those who say British cities are unsafe, that we are being overrun by migrants or have abandoned freedom of speech, I say you are factually wrong.

“I reject the distorted narratives and forces of division that drive this.”

Sir Christian also alluded to the transatlantic tensions of recent months, heightened by the Iran war, although he noted the “very positive” first meeting between Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Mr Trump at the United Nations last week.

He said he had “heard voices of doubt on both sides of the Atlantic who question whether old alliances still matter”.

The envoy added: “They look at a volatile world and conclude that we face a choice: between the USA and Europe, or argue that nations should turn inward.

The ambassador highlighted the ‘very positive’ first meeting between Andy Burnham and Donald Trump (Toby Melville/PA)

PA Wire

“I draw the opposite conclusion. Because history teaches us that the answer to change is not retreat. It is renewal.”

Sir Christian went on: “As we reflect on the spirit of 1776, our two countries have, of course, disagreed at times. Just take our small differences over language. I give you aluminium, football, pants.

“The story of our alliance has never been the absence of disagreement. No, it has been the ability to work through disagreement and emerge stronger.

“Our task now is not to preserve this relationship in aspic. Nor rest on complacency. It is to adapt it for the decades ahead. I am profoundly optimistic that we will.”

He invited doubters “to settle it over a pint” at the embassy’s “newest diplomatic asset, The Two Georges pub”.

As America marked its 250th anniversary of independence from Britain, Sir Christian said the two countries had gone “from adversaries to allies” and forged “one of the most productive alliances the world has ever known”, and highlighted the benefits of the long-standing partnership.

He concluded: “When the United Kingdom and the United States combine our talent, our ingenuity and our ambition, the future becomes brighter for all of us.”