Dame Karen Pierce will be the next British ambassador to Washington, according to a senior official in London, filling the void left by Sir Kim Darroch when he resigned after comments critical of President Trump were leaked.
It is understood that the career diplomat will soon be named as the first woman to hold the No. 1 job in the British diplomatic service.
She is currently Britain’s permanent representative to the United Nations, where she has earned plaudits for standing up to Russia with a no-nonsense style and a very British turn of phrase.
In one famous exchange, she went head-to-head with the Russian ambassador over the nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England. When Vasily Nebenzya said his country should be involved in the investigation, Pierce’s reply referenced Midsomer Murders and Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis, saying that “allowing Russian scientists into an investigation when they are the most likely perpetrators of the crime in Salisbury would be like Scotland Yard inviting in Professor Moriarty.”
She will take on the job at a critical time, when Britain is seeking a free trade deal with the United States as it builds a new place in the world after Brexit.
Pierce, 60, must also handle the fallout from London’s decision to use Huawei in its 5G networks, as well as an extradition row over an American woman wanted in the death of a British motorcyclist.
Sources said she was selected because she developed good relations with the Trump administration during her time in the U.S., which included a previous stint in Washington in the 1990s. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is believed to be among the admirers of her down-to-earth manner.
This week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed his anger with opponents of plans for a free trade deal, calling them “naive and juvenile anti-Americans.” In contrast, Pierce is understood to have impressed with her nuanced understanding of the U.S.’s political climate.
She is replacing Darroch, who resigned in July after a leak of diplomatic cables in which he characterized the Trump administration as “inept and insecure.”
The breach sparked a diplomatic row, with Trump declaring, “We’re not big fans of that man.”
Pierce joined the foreign service in 1981. Although she studied at Cambridge University, she was educated at a state school, an unusual background for diplomats who, at that time, were drawn largely from private schools, making her a groundbreaker in more than one way.
She has been posted to Tokyo, the Balkans, and Geneva and was the United Kingdom’s ambassador to Afghanistan in 2015 and 2016.
