Afghanistan: Jack Straw on UK-US political relations

Jack Straw has "always personally avoided like the plague" the special relationship phrase about UK-US relations.

The former Labour foreign secretary said it was a "conceit" by the UK, and was seen "patronising" in the USA, as he spoke about western troops leaving Afghanistan.

He said the current Conservative Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has been "doing an astonishing job", but Boris Johnson had "not had the traction that a British prime minister ought to have built up with an American president.”