US President-Elect Donald Trump telephoned Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday afternoon, as the UK seeks closer ties with the new regime, sources told The i Paper.
Diplomats were shocked last week when Chinese President Xi Jinping was offered an invitation to Trump’s inauguration.
Instead, China’s ambassador to the US is likely to attend and other officials from Beijing may also join him.
Starmer is understood not to have been invited to the ceremony but that is not unusual as records indicate no foreign leaders have ever attended a presidential inauguration.
Instead, the Prime Minister is expected to visit as early as February, once the president is in post, according to people familiar with the discussions.
A spokesman for Starmer said no decisions on the timing of a trip have taken place.
At the inauguration ceremony, the new president will make a promise to American citizens to do his best to protect the country and do a good job as leader, known as “taking the oath of office”.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump meets Prince William on the day of the reopening ceremonies of the Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedra Photo by Suzanne Plunkett – Pool/Getty Images)The ceremony traditionally begins around noon because, according to the 20th Amendment to the US Constitution, a President’s term of office begins at 12pm on 20 January, the year following an election.
There would not be much opportunity for political discussions at the time of the ceremony as Trump and his team move into the White House. Therefore, officials believe it would be better for Starmer to visit properly once the president is in place.
Nonetheless, the call on Wednesday afternoon is a boost to Starmer and his standing with the White House. Improving trade with America – or at least avoiding the tariffs Trump has vowed to place on imports – is a key part of the government’s plan to grow the economy.
Starmer and Lammy had a two-hour meal with Trump and his team at Trump Tower in New York City in September.
Prince William also met Trump in Paris earlier this month at the ceremony to dedicate the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral.
The UK’s Ambassador to the US Karen Pierce was credited with making sure the Prime Minister, in town for the United Nations General Assembly, didn’t have to add more airmiles to his trip by visiting Florida as well and for securing the first meal inside the golden skyscraper taken by a visiting foreign premier.
The notoriously thin-skinned Trump also appears to have forgiven Lammy for his disobliging remarks about the new president. When he was a backbench MP in 2018, Lammy described Trump as a “tyrant” and “a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”.
At a glitzy Foreign Office Christmas Party at the grand Lancaster House on Tuesday evening Lammy addressed diplomats and joked that the special relationship was going very well, using as evidence that during the meal Trump offered Lammy “a second portion of chicken.”
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