Robert Holmes Tuttle is the United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James's in the United Kingdom, a post he has held since July 2005.

A California native, he was appointed Ambassador by US President George W. Bush, having previously worked in the White House during the Reagan administration as an Assistant to the President in 1982, and Director of Presidential Personnel in 1985. Tuttle was also on the Board of Directors of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is a graduate of Stanford University, and earned his MBA degree at the University of Southern California. Tuttle is a partner in an automobile dealership based in Beverly Hills, California and is married to the former Maria Denise Hummer. He has two daughters from a previous marriage.

Controversy over traffic tickets

In March 2006, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said that Tuttle was trying to "skive out of [paying] like some chiselling little crook. A survey published in 2007 showed that the United States owed £1.5 million in outstanding congestion charge payments. Livingstone again chided Tuttle, and called him a "venal little crook" for his refusal to pay .

However, Tom Conti, founder of campaign group London Motorists Action Group (LMAG), said: "I think the American ambassador's stance on this is very reasoned, I think he makes his case very well.

"Obviously, when you have got a parking ticket then you've done something wrong - so you should pay up. But in terms of the congestion charge I can see how some of these diplomats feel." .

According to the survey, the US Embassy is the "worst offender" out of the top 10, but other countries on the list include Nigeria, Sudan, Japan, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Germany, and Zimbabwe.

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