Britain’s deputy ambassador to the US has abruptly left his post as the country’s second most senior diplomat.
James Roscoe has held the role since July 2022 and stood in as acting ambassador after Peter Mandelson was sacked over his links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
No explanation was given for his departure, but Mr Roscoe is understood to have been questioned about the leak of top-secret discussions at a meeting of the National Security Council, The Times reported.
Details of the meeting, which involved a discussion over the US request to use British military bases at the start of the Iran conflict, were leaked to a journalist in March.
Foreign Office sources said that senior embassy officials were among those questioned about the leak.
Mr Roscoe, 49, had been one of the names tipped to take over from Mr Mandelson, after stepping up to fulfil his duties last year.
The role was instead given to Sir Christian Turner, but Mr Roscoe retained his position as deputy ambassador.
He played an important role in President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK as well as the King’s recent visit to the US to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Former deputy ambassador to the US James Roscoe pictured with his wife, actress and author Clemency Burton-Hill
Mr Roscoe alongside Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper at the British Ambassador’s residence in Washington
Mr Roscoe lives in Washington alongside his wife, actress and journalist Clemency Burton-Hill.
The pair met while Mr Roscoe was on assignment to the High Commission in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in 2006.
Burton-Hill is also a violinist who has presented the Proms and Breakfast on BBC Radio 3. She also became the BBC’s first head of music and arts.
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Before moving to Washington, Mr Roscoe was the UK ambassador to the United Nations and previously served as communications chief to the late Queen.
He had also worked as chief press officer in Downing Street for prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
Mr Roscoe’s earlier diplomatic postings included the UN, Sierra Leone and Iraq.
In a brief statement, a Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘James Roscoe has left his post.’
During the King’s recent visit to Washington, Roscoe praised the monarch for helping to repair relations between the two nations.
He told CNN: ‘The King.. can draw out those things that really pull us together’.
He also paid tribute to the ‘incredible’ defence and economic partnerships that ‘bind the US and UK’.
However, the visit was marred after his colleague’s comments to visiting sixth-form pupils were leaked to the Financial Times.
Sir Christian Turner, Britain’s ambassador to the US, smiles with the King at a garden party in Washington last month
Sir Christian was appointed as Britain’s ambassador to the US in December after Peter Mandelson was sacked over his links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein
Sir Christian played down the so-called ‘Special Relationship’ between the UK and US, saying America’s only such connection is ‘probably Israel’.
In a recording of the remarks, shared with the Financial Times, the long-serving diplomat noted how the scandal had ‘brought down a senior member of the royal family [Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor], a British ambassador to Washington, potentially the Prime Minister, and yet here in the US, it really hasn’t touched anybody’.
He also suggested that Sir Keir Starmer could be ‘brought down’ by the row over his predecessor and pointed to the May elections as a potential breaking point.
Sir Christian’s remarks were said to have been made during a question-and-answer session with students on diplomacy and politics and were never intended as an on-the-record statement of Government policy.
Sir Keir later insisted that he would not sack the loose-lipped ambassador – saying he was the ‘least of my problems’.
