The transatlantic row has domestic ties with brexit and the conservative Party Leadership race all entangled in this resignation. Also on the programme. The us labor secretary comes under fire for his role in a plea deal reached with a financier now charged with sex trafficking. Alex acosta will soon speak out. And thousands cheer on the Us Womens Soccer Team and their fight for equal pay at their ticker tape parade in new york. Hello and welcome im katty kay in london, Michelle Fleury is in new york. British diplomats are supposed to be able to tell their bosses in london what they think, without those thoughts becoming public. They are supposed to be able to give candid analysis without fear of losing theirjobs. Today, Sir Kim Darroch, britains ambassdor to america learned that neither of those things still hold. Sir kim resigned today after leaked emails printed in a uk newspaper revealed his less than flattering assesment of the us president. The resignation is highly unsusual and prompts a lot of unsettling questions for british diplomacy and british domestic politics. We will explore all those issues in the programme starting with this report from our Diplomatic Correspondent james landale. Kim darroch, 42 years a loyal public servant, from a Council Estate who advised Prime Ministers and until this morning her majestys ambassador to the United States. He resigned because his lick remarks critical of donald trump made it impossible to carry out his role. Westminster there was anger and support in equal measure. Sir kim has given a lifetime of service to the United Kingdom and feel him and enormous debt of gratitude. Good government depends on public serva nts government depends on Public Servants being able to give full and frank advice. I think the comments made about him are beyond unfair and wrong, he has given honourable and good service and should be thanked for it. At the state visit last month they went on good terms but his private description of an inept and dysfunctional white house prompted insults. I will keep them until he is due to retire. After the man who will be our next Prime Ministers refused to support him some White Whitehall sources said sir kim had to go. Boris johnson has biscoe thrown our top diplomat under the bus and there are lots of people here who are very angry. Allies said this was a shabby attempt to politicise the resignation and that the position had become untenable. He isa the position had become untenable. He is a superb diplomat and i want with him for many years and i think whoever leaked the intelligence has done a grave disservice to our Civil Servants. You said you are not going to back in. On the contrary. I think it is wrong to drag them into the arena. Morality at the Foreign Office is low at the risk is at least britain looking like a leaky ship, buffeted by a foreign power with diplomats fearful of speaking truth to politicians who may not defend them if that truth eventually. This afternoon Foreign Office staff met to show solidarity with sir kim. Their boss told mps it was unprecedented for the head of a friendly government not to cooperate. I have been in touch with the ambassadors this week stressing that unvarnished and honest analysis is what we need to, it is what officials need in order to give the best possible advice to ministers to the decisions can be as good as possible. The question is who will be the next resident in the British Embassy in washington. He or she will have a big repairjob to do. And joining us now from washington is the bbcs nick bryant. Obviously the us uk relationship considered a special, does the us now feel it has the upper hand . The us has always believed it has had the upper hand, there is a was been an imbalance in the special relationship right back to 1946. When Winston Churchill coined that phrase, and was most evident if britain was under in suez when eisenhower pulled the rug from under the feet of Prime Minister anthony eden. It shows how embarrassed it is right now, at this time of brexit when britain how imbalanced it is. When looking for good terms and trade deal there is desperation and the diplomacy and neediness in the special relationship in donald trump is the sort of president who picks that up, it is pretty obvious you do not need to be Sherlock Holmes to realise that and that is what we have seen, and that he did not use the phrase has famous catchphrase you are fired, that was kind of the message of those tweets over the past few days. One that ridiculed sir kim one more importantly that blackballed him. Immediately diplomatic doors started shutting on monday and he was not allowed to attend a dinner with the president and the theresa may backed him and though and the theresa may backed him and thoutheremy and the theresa may backed him and though jeremy had backed and the theresa may backed him and thoutheremy had backed him, Boris Johnson did not. It is always a good day for me go back to 1946. Do you know from your reporting in washington what it was that made sir kim decided he had to go . What really pushed him out the door . Were not getting any want from the embassy in washington, the whitehall torque as was through watching the televised debate last night but he watched on asjohnson has followed boss and future boss has Prime Minister not take the opportunity to back him info. That is coming out of whitehall, not washington. They are not here in washington, obviously beenin not here in washington, obviously been in contact with the embassy that they are not giving away much. His position had become untenable, you had this extraordinary situation and unprecedented situation in modern times where the white house was going to be a no go zone for the ambassador of americas crosses ally. It is about access to the white house and this administration, the state Department Said it received no directive to sever ties with sir kim but the state department are more peripheral in this administration than they have beenin this administration than they have been in the past, access to the white house and the west wing edible office is what it is all about. Sir kim was being denied that and his position became impossible. As he himself wrote in his resignation letter. Thank you. For more on the impact of this decision we can speak with Nicholas Burns in washington who served as the Us Ambassador to nato and greece. Iam going i am going to guess that during your time as American Ambassador to greece and nato, there were things you wrote and cables to washington that you would not have liked to have printed in public,. That is certainly true. That is the job of a diplomat, not always to be nice to the country to which you are a creditor, is to tell the truth to get on government and give the unvarnished analysis of what is happening, that is exactly what ambassadors do and what kim darroch did, he did hisjob. Itappears ambassadors do and what kim darroch did, he did hisjob. It appears he has been upended by two forces, scurrilous officials in britain will eat the cables, a violation of the official secrets act, officials in britain who leaked the cables. Also donald trump who is so vain and vengeful who should have put his vanity aside because of this relationship is pivotal to the notice this, we need to trust a britain and President Trump acted ignobly and trying to blackball a very decent and good ambassador. Watching this incident is a former ambassador yourself follows transatlantic relations, doesnt look like britain wasnt bullied by the white house . I am afraid that does. It is true the us and uk have not always been on the same page but ican not always been on the same page but i can tell you from many decades there has been a high degree of trust between london and washington, but always agreeing but trusting. When President Trump and essentially said that ambassador kim darroch was persona non grata , said that ambassador kim darroch was persona non grata, he made it impossible to continue his job and what a terrible signal that is to the british people and government at a time of great to given the brexit debate, America Needs to be a better friend to britain and i really feel and everyone who i have talked in washington believes that President Trump did not act appropriately. This is a situation involving a very closest allies. We have been focusing on the us and uk relationship but is evenly there will be different metrics all across washington feeling chose from this diplomats feeling chilled from this. American diplomats as well, diplomacy depends on the ability of government is to maintain official secrets. And confidentiality. When kim darroch sent a cable to london and an American Ambassador sends a cable to washington that is secret, it has to remain secret, governments depend on these very honest assessments of foreign leaders and situations addition do not have that is impossible for diplomacy to function. You have the official secrets act, the United States has was perched up on the use of classified information and i think that really is a great concern. United states has was which govern. Business review and some ways the wea kness Business Review and some ways the weakness of British Brexit diplomacy . Im afraid it means britain goes ahead, this is a friend of britain, for goes ahead with Brexit Britain will be more isolated. It will not have its power base in unit and be more dependent ona base in unit and be more dependent on a griddle or ship with United States. Under a normal american president who would deal fairly with britain that might not be a problem, they would welcome a relationship but i am they would welcome a relationship butiama they would welcome a relationship but i am a afraid donald trump is not that, you might try to take advantage of britain and upstage the british debate he has done and to be so impolite and arrogant in saying he will not stop to the British Ambassador, can you imagine a situation like that,. We say about a run on north korea will not talk to them, we have said that ever during suez or the iraq war disagreements, between people be never boycotted each other until donald trump did that to ambassador kim darroch, it isa that to ambassador kim darroch, it is a low point in the transatlantic relationship and a lot of us need to reflect on the proper way for friends to write with each other at a time of crisis. Thank you. With me is Colleen Graffy former us Deputy Assistant secretary of state under president george w bush. A low point in relationships, as the special relationship never less special . I would focus to reinforce everything that has been said that it is absolutely key that diplomats have confidential exchanges with their host countries and people perhaps do not understand how important this is. There is one international treaty, the Vienna Convention of 1961 which says you cannot check a diplomat was s car, you cannot run to the embassy, you cannot check their baggage as it goes through the airport. This is how critically important this is. We perhaps have forgotten Yvonne Fletcher murdered and foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe had to make the tough decision to say we are not going to violate the sanctity of an embassy even under this condition and we had to diplomatically undo it. The focus should be on how did the slick happen, is it a disgruntled employee, summer with a political agenda, a hostile government seeking to undermine relations . If so, what rights does that we have to address that but also what is the purpose of the media and publishing this . I know freedom of press and expression but this goes beyond this, there is no inherent need for the public to know about secret cables and in fact it goes against the public interest, they should want their ambassadors and diplomats to be able to communicate freely and so i think that should be some reflection on whether the media should consider that when they receive Something Like this if it is not a whistle blower situation that they should think twice before publishing it. My father was a british diplomat, he fully agrees and would love to hear what you are saying but we live in an age were things get hacked, will this change the way that diplomats do business . Change the import of ambassadors around the world if they have to fly back to london to deliver once in person rather than fuel can do it securely . No, they have to be able to communicate and cannot take the time to fly, we have to figure out more secure means of doing this, have a way of tracing him information gets out so they can catch individuals that do this. We need to find ways of responsible journalism that publishers will say unless that is a whistle blower situation here we are going to put this back to the Foreign Commonwealth Office and allow them to make the decision. I think Going Forward it is absently critical for parliament to ascertain how this happened and then create safeguards so that diplomats can continue to speak freely and frankly. Thank you. Ithink continue to speak freely and frankly. Thank you. I think this is the point we have been hearing consistently that there has been some criticism of kim darroch forcing what he did but the point is if you cannot try under plans to give you candid advice then what is the point of having diplomats and an ambassador if they cannot tell you what they are thinking . If they just tell you this is a nice platitude i will give you about my hosts then there is not much point. I think that the sum of the shock we are seeing today, someone doing their job and essentially thrown under the bus for doing it. We were looking at the Foreign Commonwealth Office statement, the very clear they wa nted statement, the very clear they wanted to point out he had not done anything wrong and was just doing hisjob. Jennifer araoz says she was 15 years old whenJeffrey Epstein raped her in his new york townhouse. She said she was lured their by a female friend of epsteins, was initially paid to give him sexual massages and then eventually was raped. Ms araoz gave her account on us tv after mr epstein was charged earlier this week with sex trafficking in underage girls. He has pleaded not guilty. Pleading not guilty too at least in the court of Public Opinion is Donald Trumps labour secretary alex acosta. He was the prosecutor in florida who cut a deal with mr epstein back in 2007 that is seen as excessively lenient. Mr acosta is expected to speak about the case soon. We are joined now by former assistant us atttorney kim wehle. Talk us through why the controversy around alex acosta when he was prosecuted in this case. There were numerous women and girls involved in this alleged sex trafficking scheme, Jeffrey Epstein had very powerful lawyers and a lot of money and well connected politically and it is reported that alex acosta as us attorney felt pressured to give him what most people believe is a sweetheart deal. He ended up not only with 13 months in prison but was able to come and go to his local office and in addition got a non prosecution deal when he was essentially immunised from product charges relating to the very sad situation and in addition alex acosta did not let the victims know that this deal was coming and that that this deal was coming and that that violates federal law is protecting victims. There are a lot of pieces to it that show or suggest it is money and influence that got him on this deal notjustice. He has tried to address some of this on twitter, we are waiting to hear his first remarks on television shortly. He is not expected to resign, what do you think we might hear . We are ina do you think we might hear . We are in a world these days where Sexual Misconduct allegations including against the president tends to get a general shrug from populist or social order. So i think he alex acosta will make that determination based on if you get any kind oppression how much particle pressure is and hang on to his office. In the old days this kind of scandal would probably produce a resignation but these days i think the question is whether there will be sufficient public pressure to resign and the broader question has to bei resign and the broader question has to be i think what kind of people we wa nt to be i think what kind of people we wantan to be i think what kind of people we want an elected and appointed officers at the federal level. Is it something that once someone with integrity, someone who is going to work for the mill of the people are have that perception . I think that isa have that perception . I think that is a problem with respect to alex acosta pots decisions in miami that we are not necessarily illegal but problematic. We live any time when talking about me to the idea that cases like this are coming to light and people who act badly towards young women are being charged and yet you seem to be suggesting we have a case for people can act with impunity. We will have to see. Alex acosta himself is not on trial, he was not charg