Felicia Schwartz is the diplomatic correspondent at POLITICO.
In public, Christian Turner is the perfect entertainer.
The new British ambassador to the United States used his welcome party in February to toast an embarrassing British defeat (also known as the 250th anniversary of American independence). He hosted a buzzy party ahead of the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner. And after a gunman stormed the dinner, threatening to upend King Charles’ state visit, he held a brunch where he urged shaken guests to “keep calm and have a cup of tea.”
In private, Turner is engaged in a much more delicate kind of political acrobatics — trying to maintain influence in Washington while the government he’s meant to represent unravels further by the day.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces a growing mutiny from within Labour after the party got walloped in local elections nationwide, and he may soon be pushed out of office. Starmer’s leadership crisis looms over any discussion of U.K. politics, and all Turner can do is keep his head down.
Meanwhile, the scandal over his predecessor Peter Mandelson’s ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein isn’t finished unfurling. His deputy abruptly exited his job last week. And then there is the full book of bilateral business to attend to: Turner must help save a struggling US-U.K. trade deal and convince President Donald Trump and his team that NATO and trans-Atlantic ties continue to matter.
This is not the 53-year-old career diplomat’s first D.C. posting, having previously served as first secretary in the early 2000s. In fact, both of his children were born in Washington some two decades ago. But the capital of that era would be unrecognizable today.
Republicans and Democrats are barely talking to each other, traditional diplomatic channels matter less than knowing the right people in Trump’s orbit, and the assumptions about American power and alliances that underpinned his last tour no longer hold.
So Turner is learning to play by the new rules. He’s taking trips to Florida and meeting the MAGA set. At his welcome party at the stately British Ambassador’s Residence in February, he held up a red baseball cap that read “America is Back” — a gift from the president, he said.
Turner is also engaging in the traditional diplomatic maneuvers of the British ambassador like embracing D.C. social life. People who know Turner and have talked to him recently say he’s determined to advance the U.K.’s agenda in the U.S., without getting derailed by the political jockeying across the Atlantic.
“When London is distracted, it defaults to you to get on it with it,” said a British official, who like others in this article were granted anonymity to speak candidly about diplomatic and professional contacts. “It’s up to him to keep everything on a steady keel.”
Turner and the British embassy declined to comment for this article.
Turner has also embraced the rule of a predecessor during the George W. Bush administration to ban the phrase “special relationship” while inside the embassy, according to a person who has spoken with him. It could imply a neediness and nostalgia to the U.S.-U.K. alliance — and he doesn’t want his team to assume that strong ties between the countries will hum along without real effort.
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Turner’s arrival was essentially a clean-up act from the start.
Starmer tapped him after sacking Mandelson, a politically appointed grandee who was already controversial over his ties to China, Russia and Epstein. But fresh emails released late last year revealing the depth of Mandelson’s friendship with the late sex offender were his ultimate undoing.
If the Mandelson chapter has largely closed in Washington, it remains wide open in London. More of his emails are expected to drop soon and a criminal misconduct investigation into his alleged leaking of government information to Epstein grinds on. Mandelson, who has not been charged, has denied wrongdoing and his lawyers have said his overriding priority is to clear his name.
Another hiccup came last Tuesday when Deputy Ambassador James Roscoe, who temporarily presided over the embassy before Turner took up his post, left his job unexpectedly. The U.K. Foreign Office did not provide any additional details, but POLITICO reported his sudden exit is tied to an investigation into a leak about Iran war deliberations from the U.K. National Security Council.
“This is the last thing the U.K. needs on top of the Mandelson stuff,” a former British diplomat said, adding that while details are still coming out, the latest drama was yet another challenge for Starmer’s struggling government and for Turner’s embassy.
Meanwhile, the upheaval at Downing Street will inevitably make it harder for Turner to do his job.
“It’s more likely that decisions back in London will not be made because of the political turmoil,” said a person with ties to the U.S. and U.K. security establishments. “The prime minister and foreign secretary only have so much capacity. When you have urgent decisions that need to be made — who can make them, and can they make them in time? Especially when there’s a change in ministers, it’s not an easy process.”
When asked by Trump administration officials and others in Washington about the political uncertainty back home, Turner generally leans on his status as a civil servant, simply explaining how the British system works and outlining the possible outcomes, people who have spoken with him said. That’s in sharp contrast to Mandelson, a former government minister and Labour party fixture who knew many of the characters and was involved in plenty of political wrangling himself.
Turner is also somewhat insulated no matter what happens to Starmer. Because he is not a political appointee, he will almost certainly remain in his post even if Labour decides to give their current leader the boot and install a new prime minister. And the next general election might not take place until 2029, so Labour isn’t going anywhere just yet. Still, it’s an awkward time to be a new ambassador, entering after the Mandelson fiasco and now living through the Starmer crisis.
So Turner is doing all he can to throw himself into Trump’s orbit and the broader political scene. In his first three months, Turner has already spent a weekend in Palm Beach and visited with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. One person familiar with the trip said that Turner, a choral singer and 70’s music fan, enjoyed the president’s playlist and hospitality. Turner has also made trips to New York and San Francisco to connect with the American business and tech communities and helped lead the U.K.’s largest ever trade delegation of 230 companies to Los Angeles last week.
Turner has already made some progress on policy. Ahead of King Charles’ visit, Turner was among those who engineered Trump’s decision to waive Scottish whisky tariffs, with the king using the legwork to get it over the line, two people familiar with the matter said. (The trade row is far from over, however, with aluminum and steel remaining on the table and the U.K. still under pressure to dismantle its digital services tax.)
The ambassador has also helped the U.K. navigate what began as a public spat over Iran, with Trump fuming that Starmer had been “very, very uncooperative” in not initially granting U.S. forces access to Diego Garcia and other British bases for strikes. Trump continues to grouse about his British counterpart, but Turner has helped with some recent UK efforts to ease still-high tensions. The U.K. has opened its bases and airspace for defensive purposes; British jets are shooting down missiles and drones over the Middle East to protect U.K. and allied assets; intelligence is flowing; and London is assembling a coalition with France to secure the Strait of Hormuz once the fighting ends.
The White House declined to comment.
Turner has security bona fides from his time as the U.K. Foreign Office’s political director, where he was a chief negotiator behind last year’s European-led snapback of UN sanctions on Iran.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump confidant and Iran hawk, pointed to that experience as the kind of credential that lands with this White House.
“I like him a lot,” Graham said. “He understands the threat we all face from Iran. He’s level-headed and a very, very nice man and an outstanding pick. … He’s well respected on both sides of the aisle.”
Turner has been quick to reach out to both Republicans and Democrats.
“Christian and [his wife] Claire have that kind of humor and charm that makes the whole British thing work,” said John McCarthy, a former senior adviser to President Joe Biden who is a frequent guest at the embassy. “They are very eager in terms of getting to know everybody and then putting their own mark on things.”
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For all the messiness surrounding his predecessor and his prime minister, Turner’s arrival came in one key way at the perfect time. Turner took up his post just months ahead of a marquee visit by King Charles and Queen Camilla to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary. The planning process brought Turner in close contact with senior Trump administration officials as well as Democratic lawmakers, civic and business leaders and others who will be essential for his time in the role. It also put a shine on him.
“The timing is super lucky. Imagine being the ambassador that can claim credit for the royal visit,” said one person in the business community who is a regular guest at the British ambassador’s residence.
The royal visit got off to a tough start for Turner. In April, a day after King Charles landed in the U.S., the Financial Times published a story based on a leaked recording of him telling U.K. students, “I think there is probably one country that has a special relationship with the United States, and that is probably Israel.”
“I was a bit surprised with those leaked remarks to students — he’d normally be more careful than that,” said one British diplomat.
But Turner survived the leak unscathed, showing he knows how to navigate a thorny political environment — at least so far. Turner hosted a garden party for the king’s visit, and the regular guest at the residence, who attended the party, said he was impressed with Turner’s maneuvers at the event and his efforts to make sure it was fruitful for Charles and Camilla. Guests were placed around the lawn grouped according to their industry, with Turner and his wife making introductions and helping the royals navigate the scene.
Being a savvy garden party host indicates a core aspect of Turner’s job. Perhaps even more than other diplomats, the role of British ambassador to the United States is a social one. That’s partly how they wield power. One of Turner’s personal mantras of life at the embassy is “if in doubt, get out,” according to a person who has spoken with him. The idea is to get out and meet people and see things, rather than get too distracted by the various meetings and processes that could consume a chief diplomat’s time.
Several veterans of the D.C. social circuit interviewed for this article noted Turner and his wife Claire are a relatively young couple with lots of energy. Claire in particular has been a key player in the couple’s efforts to navigate Washington. She was spotted dancing with her hands in the air while Nelly performed at an exclusive party at Donald Trump Jr.’s social club on the Friday before the Correspondents’ Dinner, said a person who attended.
If there is a criticism of Turner, it’s that he is perhaps a little too smooth. “Some possibly see him as a bit of a slick operator,” the British diplomat said. Another person who worked with him, a former British diplomat, called him a bit of “a chameleon,” and hard to pin down.
He also knows how to keep a trick up his sleeve.
In June 2019, Turner was traveling with British Prime Minister Theresa May back to London from the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. It was May’s final overseas trip as Britain’s leader — she had already announced her intention to resign, brought down by the continued turmoil of Brexit — and the premier’s team was sipping gin and playing cards on the government jet.
Turner, who was May’s deputy national security adviser at the time, grabbed the deck of cards and proceeded to show off his sleight-of-hand skills: Pick a card, don’t show him, shuffle, mess around with the deck some more… And then, voilà, Turner triumphantly identified the original card.
The small crowd of spectators cheered, according to two people who were present, with Turner high fiving everyone within range. He may need to call upon those skills again and deploy a little magic in his newest assignment.
Nahal Toosi, Sophia Cai, Calen Razor and Tim Ross contributed to this report.
