British ambassador to Washington slams Trump over 'factually wrong' claims about UK
The top diplomat slammed “distorted narratives and forces of division” in a thinly-veiled rebuke of the US President
The British ambassador to Washington has hit out at Donald Trump over "factually wrong" claims about the UK.
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Sir Christian Turner made the thinly veiled jibe at the US President during a speech at the King’s Birthday Party held at the embassy in Washington on Wednesday evening.
The top diplomat hit out at “distorted narratives and forces of division” in what appeared to be in response to Mr Trump's repeated claim that parts of London have become dangerous "no-go" areas due to immigration.
Last month the US President claimed 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”.
In a section of the speech entitled “Taking on the detractors”, Sir Christian 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.
Read more: Third of people share Donald Trump’s belief that London has no-go areas
“I reject the distorted narratives and forces of division that drive this.”
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”.
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.
“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.”