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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer left a gun reportedly gifted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the British Embassy in Ankara after being told he could not take it back to the United Kingdom, according to reports by The Guardian and the Financial Times.
The reports said Erdogan gave NATO leaders an engraved revolver and a box of live ammunition during the NATO Summit in Ankara.
Starmer reportedly spoke about the gift to journalists on his flight back from Türkiye and said the weapon would remain in Ankara to be decommissioned, meaning it would be made unusable.
According to The Guardian, Starmer did not bring the revolver home because importing such a weapon into the U.K. would be illegal under British firearms rules.
The report said the gun was left at the British Embassy in Ankara so it could be destroyed or decommissioned.
Starmer's case was linked to the U.K.'s strict controls on handguns, which were tightened after the 1996 Dunblane massacre and led to a near-total ban on private handgun ownership.
The Financial Times reported that Erdogan also gave leaders the necessary official export documents for the weapons. Another account said Erdogan provided a personal note waiving Türkiye's export controls.
However, those documents only addressed the Turkish side of the process. For Starmer, British law still prevented the weapon from being brought into the country.
It was not immediately clear whether other NATO leaders faced similar legal issues after receiving the reported gifts.
The claims came after the 36th NATO Summit, held on July 7-8 at Türkiye's Presidential Complex in Ankara. It was the first NATO summit hosted by Türkiye since Istanbul in 2004.
The summit focused mainly on defense spending, support for Ukraine, and the possibility of renewed U.S. arms sales to Ankara, including discussions around the F-35 fighter jet program.
Türkiye's Presidency had not issued a statement on the British media reports at the time of publication.
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