Donald Trump’s US administration has decided to allow Peter Mandelson to take up the role of UK ambassador to Washington after a diplomatic show of strength was smoothed over.
Sir Keir Starmer had been under some pressure to drop Lord Mandelson as his candidate with the president’s team threatening to put serious restrictions on his activities in the US as the incoming team flexed their muscles over the leak of a phone call between Trump and the PM late last year.
Any diplomatic fault lines appear to have been smoothed over after a cordial and personal phone call between the two leaders on Sunday.
The pair did not directly discuss Mandelson, but the warm conversation has helped to smooth out tensions relating to the appointment of the former Labour cabinet minister, The i Paper understands.
The pair agreed to “meet soon” in the US and a trip could take place as soon as next month.
“The messages coming from the White House are that they are happy to proceed with Peter’s appointment,” a UK government source said. He is expected to start in early February.
The two men spoke for 45 minutes on Sunday in their first call since Trump’s inauguration. According to Downing Street’s readout of the call, they discussed trade and the economy and security in the Middle East.
Trump also sent his condolences to the prime minister after the death of his brother Nick, who had cancer and had died on Boxing Day. Starmer thanked Trump “for his kind words and congratulated him on his inauguration,” Downing Street said after the call.
A Downing Street spokesman said the process of appointing the British ambassador is “still ongoing.”
Last week The i Paper revealed former Foreign Secretary David Miliband had been lobbying Starmer’s Downing Street team to become the UK’s ambassador to the US if Mandelson was knocked out of the running.
Trump and his wife, Melania, made a state visit to the UK in 2019 and were hosted by the late Queen Elizabeth II. Ministers are minded to extend another state invitation to Trump, who is a fan of the royal family.
The president spoke warmly of Prince William after meeting him at the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last month.
Trump’s team’s irritation with the British government is thought to stem from the leak of the high-level call. His allies were understood to be particularly annoyed as the report gave the impression that Britain was laughing at the incoming president.
Moreover, although Starmer previously glossed over the Trump campaign’s accusation in October that Labour officials volunteering for Kamala Harris’s Democrats amounted to “foreign interference” in the US election, it was understood to be a continuing bone of tension with Trump’s inner circle based in Mar-a-Lago.
The Trump administration is increasingly using its diplomatic clout. A looming trade war between the US and Colombia appears to have been averted after the Colombian government backed down and agreed to allow US military flights carrying deported migrants to land there.
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