Keir Starmer is poised to choose a new ambassador to Washington from a shortlist of three as relations with the US are tested over Ukraine and Donald Trump’s attacks on European leaders.
The prime minister held interviews with three finalists for the role this week, the Guardian has learned, with Downing Street preparing to make an appointment before the end of the year.
The trio of candidates seen by Starmer were Varun Chandra, his business adviser who has helped negotiate a series of deals with the Trump administration, Christian Turner, a diplomat due to become ambassador to the UN, and Nigel Casey, the British ambassador to Russia.
Whoever is chosen will be taking up the role at a critical stage in US-UK relations, with insiders warning of rising tensions over Ukraine and the White House’s pugnacious national security strategy.
Chandra, a former managing partner at the corporate intelligence firm Hakluyt, has played a central role in negotiating bilateral deals with the US on trade, tech and pharmaceuticals and is seen as the frontrunner.
However, the Foreign Office is said to be pushing for a career diplomat to be chosen, with some insiders arguing this carries less political risk.
Varun Chandra. Photograph: The Hollywood Reporter/Getty Images
Turner, who previously served as political director of the Foreign Office and high commissioner to Pakistan, and Casey, who has served as high commissioner to South Africa and private secretary for foreign affairs to David Cameron and Theresa May, are both highly regarded in Whitehall.
Casey was a late entrant to the contest, with his addition seen as a sign that Downing Street was disappointed with the original list put forward by the Foreign Office. If the prime minister is not satisfied with any of the three candidates, he could decide to directly appoint someone else.
Earlier this week Starmer met Warren Stephens, the US ambassador to the UK, in Downing Street to discuss implementing the trade and tech deals announced earlier this year.
Starmer has cultivated a strong personal relationship with Trump but this is constantly being tested by their major policy differences, including on green energy and cultural issues.
Relations between the US and Europe are being severely strained by Trump’s growing impatience at the continuation of the war in Ukraine.
The US president has been pressuring Kyiv to cede territory in order to bring the conflict to a speedy end, and has told Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, that he wants a peace deal done by Christmas.
Donald Trump claims Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not read latest Ukraine war peace proposal – video
European leaders including Starmer are due to hold a fresh set of crisis talks in Berlin on Monday to discuss the US-brokered peace proposal, amid concerns that it is too favourable to Moscow.
Meanwhile, senior British MPs rounded on the Trump administration this week over its national security strategy, which said Europe was facing “civilisational erasure” and hailed the growing influence of “patriotic European parties”.
Trump stepped up his attacks in an interview this week, suggesting that many European states would “not be viable countries any longer” unless they change their border policies and crack down on immigration.
Starmer and his ministers have been careful not to criticise Trump over the document or his interventions, while insisting that Europe is strong and investing more in its own defence.
The US ambassador role fell vacant in September after Peter Mandelson was sacked for failing to disclose the extent of his ties with the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Documents and emails published that month disclosed that Mandelson had expressed his love and support for Epstein, and urged him to “fight for early release” in 2008, while the financier was facing charges of soliciting sex from minors.
The episode was damaging to Starmer, as it emerged that he had been briefed on details of Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein as well as other “reputational risks” before choosing him.
