British Foreign Secretary reacts to The Diplomat

I am the Foreign Secretary, and I've been watching The Diplomat  and I'm going to do a little bit of fact-checking on some of the scenes from  that TV show. All right, here we go. Range Rovers going into King Charles  Street... this might be interesting. Our staircase... Oh that's not our building anymore. Tongues will start to wag. I'm sorry to  barge in, I know you're swamped. Not at all. That was the main staircase of our building  and that's a lovely wooden panel office but that's not my off

ice and the other thing  is the Foreign Secretary having a meeting with a foreign diplomat with no one else in the room  does not happen. Someone would be there discreetly writing down absolutely everything that was said.  Has an ambassador ever disturbed you and just barged into your office. I'd say there'll be all  kinds of alarm bells going off if an ambassador managed to get from the front reception of the  fcdo to the Foreign Secretary's office without a very polite but firm civil servant s

tepping in,  saying 'your Excellency can I help you in any way at all?' And diverting them - probably with a  nice coffee - to the ambassador's waiting room. You always have cookies? Is that a problem? For a reprimand? Well it's hardly a reprimand is  it? Well it should look like one. The tell isn't the biscuits, it's the  American ambassador lurking in the corner. That apparently was the diplomatic summons and  that's very very very unusual circumstances. It probably wouldn't be the Foreign Sec

retary  delivering that either because it's not a cosy chat over a cup of tea and biscuits it is a it  tends to be a short sharp one-way conversation, usually delivered by a senior official and  you definitely wouldn't have someone else's ambassador in the room whilst it happened. No one but me will be in the room. If you're choosing to trust me,  this is one of those moments. So that scene was shot in Durbar Court which   is quite an interesting... it's a brilliant bit of our building but it's

very, very echoey and if  you're going to have a very private conversation, trust me that is not the room in the Foreign  Office to have a private conversation. A, you can't hear each other  because the Acoustics and B, everyone else can hear you because  it's surrounded by offices. Sorry to disturb. Not at all, we were due a break. Ambassador Catherine Weiler,  Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge. Welcome. Welcome. We hear wonderful things. Sir,  it's an honour to meet you. Honour to be met. Having

a Prime Minister having a  meeting in the Foreign Office?When the Prime Minister has meetings  he has them in Number 10 and when I attend the Prime  Minister's meetings, I go to him. At least you get to see at least get to see this amazing building. Have you talked about the show with  any of your foreign counterparts? So on my recent trip to Washington, Anthony  Blinken, the US Secretary of State asked me if I'd watched it. The thing that they found quite  amusing was that the ambassador was c

hosen by the President and a day or two later was in London, with no congressional oversight or any of that kind of stuff. So we all do this we're  all nerdy we all kind of go well that's interesting. It doesn't work like that but  this is good fun. I really enjoy watching this. It's good fun. But what did it get right? So, how snug a fit it is getting  vehicles in and out of a building that was designed for carriages  rather than modern cars, is true. And the Foreign Secretary is a good-looking

 fella  so that's probably that's about spot on actually. But it's not about being realistic,  it's about being exciting and I think, you know, a diplomatic career - a  career in foreign service whether as a minister or as an official is a very  exciting and worthy occupation and so if people are inspired to become diplomats  because of this show, knock yourself out. That was the last question and you're  going to go into your next meeting. Thank you.