David Lammy will meet with Trump officers on Wednesday as Labour makes an attempt to forge nearer ties with Republican officers forward of elections on each side of the Atlantic later this yr.
The shadow Overseas Secretary will meet with a raft of senior Republican figures and ship a speech to a right-leaning think-tank on a two-day go to to Washington, DC this week.
The whistle-stop tour will embrace conferences with Elbridge Colby, a key ally of Mr Trump who served within the Defence Division whereas he was president, and Fred Fleitz, the previous head of the Nationwide Safety Council through the earlier Trump administration.
Mr Lammy may also meet with senior Republican figures, together with senators Lindsey Graham and JD Vance, plus Mike Turner, the chair of the Home of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee.
It comes as Labour ramps up contact with the social gathering amid rising expectations that Mr Trump may return to the White Home later this yr after being formally nominated because the Republican presidential candidate in July.
Mr Lammy may also give a speech on the Hudson Institute on Wednesday hosted by James Risch, the Republican senator for Idaho who has endorsed Mr Trump for the presidential race.
The pair are anticipated to debate the “way forward for the Atlantic alliance” and contact on points equivalent to China, Ukraine, and Labour’s dedication to Nato, i understands.
Labour has dedicated to rising defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP, however has not set a timeframe for the uplift. Rishi Sunak has stated the goal will likely be met by 2030.
Mr Lammy advised on Monday that Mr Trump was proper to say that European members of Nato ought to spend extra on defence.
The shadow Overseas Secretary stated European nations ought to “heed the sign” coming from the Republican candidate that there ought to be better monetary burden sharing in Nato to stave off the specter of Russia.
Mr Lammy’s assembly with Mr Colby this week may also mark the second of its sort in current months, as Sir Keir Starmer’s prime brass embark on a appeal offensive of key American figures forward of the US election in November.
The UK normal election, anticipated later this yr, may see Mr Starmer enter No 10 across the similar time as the following US president, with polls displaying Labour’s persevering with lead over the Conservatives.
Mr Colby, who’s tipped to change into nationwide safety adviser if Mr Trump wins a second presidential time period in November, heaped reward on the shadow Overseas Secretary following their earlier assembly.
He described Mr Lammy as “far preferable to David Cameron” after the Overseas Secretary visited Washington in April in a bid to influence the US to again elevated help for Ukraine.
Mr Colby instructed POLITICO’s Energy Play podcast that Mr Lammy had a “extra suitable imaginative and prescient” with the Trump staff, together with an even bigger give attention to defence and on Europe.
Mr Lammy, who’s a long-term good friend of Barack Obama and attended Harvard, has already held talks with different Republican figures together with Robert O’Brien and Matt Pottinger, who labored for the Trump administration.
He may also meet with White Home officers together with Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s Nationwide Safety Adviser, plus different senior Democrats throughout his journey to Washington this week.
Mr Lammy pledged earlier this yr to work with “whomever is within the White Home” following the following US presidential election, after Mr Starmer took a veiled swipe at Mr Trump.
Talking on the Munich Safety Convention, the Labour chief stated Britain “will at all times get up for our allies – even when others threaten to not” in what gave the impression to be a direct rebuke of Trump’s current criticisms of Nato.
“We’ll work with whomever is within the White Home. It doesn’t matter, frankly, who’s the incumbent of No 10 or the White Home – we’re the closest allies,” Mr Lammy later insisted.
“It’s a prevailing and robust partnership; it should stay that. We must always not get too carried away with the rhetoric that in fact we’ll all hear over the following few months in an election cycle.”