'Just a bust': US embassy in UK releases light-hearted video about removal of Churchill from Oval Office

The US embassy in London has released a light-hearted video seeking to reassure Britain that the “special relationship” remains intact despite the removal of a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office.

Joe Biden, the US president, has redesigned the room from which he will lead the nation including swapping out many of the busts and portraits chosen by Donald Trump.

“We’ve seen some discussion about the Churchill Bust, so we just wanted to remind everyone what the Special Relationship is truly about,” reads a message above the embassy’s one-minute video.

The clip opens with an image of the Jacob Epstein bust of British wartime leader Churchill with the text: “THIS IS A BUST OF WINSTON CHURCHILL.”

Then the film cuts to a message highlighting Britain and the US being the “largest investors in each other’s countries” and a shot of soldiers from each nation training together.

“THIS IS THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP,” it says in a tongue-in-cheek clarification.

The clip, after reminding viewers that the sculpture is “just a bust of Winston Churchill”, then shows photographs of meetings between the leaders of both countries spanning nearly a century, from Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy and Harold Macmillan.

Notably it ends on Barack Obama and David Cameron. “The Special Relationship is about people, values and trust,” the embassy writes.

It had been a transatlantic scandal when Mr Obama replaced Churchill with a bust of Martin Luther King Jr in 2009. Boris Johnson, who was mayor of London at the time, called it a "snub to Britain".

Mr Biden has made a number of changes to the Oval Office, including new busts of figures including Martin Luther King Jr, Robert Kennedy, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Cesar Chavez, the labour leader and civil rights activist.

“No one in America cares about how 10 Downing Street is decorated,” tweeted Tommy Vietor, Mr Obama’s former spokesman and political commentator in response to the coverage of Mr Biden’s new office decor.

“That doesn't mean the relationship is unimportant - it is - but rather that we all have better things to worry about.”

Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary, was asked on Firday what could be read into Mr Biden removing the bust. "Such an important question," Ms Psaki snarked. "It's the airplane of today," she said, referring to the buzz around whether the president will redo Mr Trump's Air Force One paint job.

"It may be (...) somewhere in the (White House) complex," she added before moving swiftly on.

British officials have downplayed the possibility of any latent meaning in the change. “It’s of course up to the President to decorate the Oval Office as he wishes,” a Number 10 spokesperson responded earlier in the week.

It is not the first instance of Twitter diplomacy between the allies. The UK and US embassies exchanged video messages last year over the proper way to make an English tea. Americans, the Brits politely implied, have been doing it all wrong.