Yet today, not only has Sir Keir broken ranks with the US over the future of Ukraine and Nato – but Mr Trump has announced that he will impose tariffs on the UK, and “reciprocal tariffs” on all other countries, in what has become the first major test between the two leaders since the US president took recent office.
Downing Street had reported that during a recent meeting with the US special envoy to the UK – Mark Burnett, a British TV executive who worked with Donald Trump on The Apprentice – Sir Keir “took a call from President Trump”.
In the same meeting, Sir Keir and Mr Burnett “agreed on the unique and special nature of the UK-US relationship, the strength of our alliance and the warmth of the connection between the two countries” and “emphasised the huge potential for even stronger collaboration on trade, tech and cultural matters between the US and the UK and looked forward to working together”.
The transition from the highly rated Karen Pearce to Peter Mandelson as ambassador in DC seems to have gone as smoothly as it could; yet the spectre of previous embarrassing remarks by Sir Keir’s colleagues – including Mr Lammy – about Mr Trump’s fitness for office were perhaps the first signs that cracks, while papered over, have not disappeared completely.
Editorial: The prime minister has broken ranks with US over Ukraine and Nato, as the US president set his sights on VAT – and JD Vance singled out the UK in a bizarre attack on Europe for its attitudes to migration and free speech.
