Diplomats banking on King to become a ‘key asset’ in President Trump relationship after the Government’s shaky start [Video]

18:31 EST 08 Nov 2024, updated 20:59 EST 08 Nov 2024

Diplomats are counting on the King to become a ‘key asset’ in forging a positive relationship with President Trump after the Government found itself on the back foot.

They say the Royal Family is a ‘priceless and powerful’ weapon of soft-diplomacy and ‘no other country will have anything similar to deploy’ in building a new ‘special relationship’ with the American leader.

Yesterday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the prospect of a state visit by the President-elect next year would be a ‘tall order’.

But he told the BBC’s Newscast podcast: ‘We want to be generous with our American friends as they will be, I imagine, with us, particularly in a second term.’ It follows critical comments by members of the Government while they were in opposition, including by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Mr Lammy.

In 2017 he called the then President a ‘neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath’, adding: ‘You are …