Vance has previously described Britain under Labour as the first “truly Islamist” country with a nuclear weapon.
Lammy told BBC Breakfast: “Let me just say on JD Vance that I’ve met him now on several occasions, we share a similar working class background with addiction issues in our family. We’ve written books on that. We’ve talked about that.
“And we’re both Christians so I think I can find common ground with JD Vance.”
[…]
Expanding on his views on Vance on BBC Radio 4, Lammy said he had started to discuss the US view on global defence at the security conference in Munich in February.“Yes, he has had strong things to say about European defences, and he has had a point of view about Ukraine,” Lammy said. “That’s why I’ve been engaged with JD Vance for many, many months.”
The foreign secretary once called Donald Trump a “neo-Nazi sociopath” and “a tyrant in a toupee”, but has distanced himself from those comments as the US presidential election has approached.
More recently Lammy has spoken at conservative events in the US, telling the Hudson Institute in May that he “gets the agenda that drives ‘America first’”.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
David Lammy has said he is already engaging with Donald Trump’s controversial running mate, JD Vance, and can identify with him because of their common working class and Christian backgrounds.
The British foreign secretary was speaking just hours after the possible future US vice-president reiterated his “America first” views, pledging to the Republican national convention (RNC) that he would not send US soldiers to war abroad unnecessarily.
Lammy told BBC Breakfast: “Let me just say on JD Vance that I’ve met him now on several occasions, we share a similar working class background with addiction issues in our family.
Starmer is hoping to use the EPC summit to demonstrate Europe’s collective determination to support Ukraine, and to relaunch the UK on the European stage and reset relations with the EU after almost eight years poisoned by Brexit.
The summit will be attended by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy who, along with Starmer, will address the plenary session involving the 44 leaders as well as the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, and the Council of Europe.
He told Harris about his pledge to repeal the controversial Legacy Act, which offered immunity for Troubles-era crimes in Northern Ireland, and committed to an annual Anglo-Irish conference with a specific work-stream aimed at ironing out practical problems which can create drags on the neighbours’ relationship.
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