A senior Labour MP has suggested King Charles should “delay” his trip to the US to avoid being left “embarrassed” by Donald Trump.
The monarch and Queen Camilla are set to meet the erratic US President next month in a much-anticipated state visit. But calls for the visit to be cancelled or postponed are gathering pace as alarm grows over Mr Trump’s increasing attacks on the British government.
Dame Emily Thornberry, a Labour MP and chair of the foreign affairs committee in the Commons, said she suspects it would be “safer to delay it” given the backdrop of the war in Iran.
Asked if it is appropriate for the King’s state visit to go ahead, she said: “If it goes ahead…it would go ahead against a backdrop of a war. And that I think is quite difficult. And the last thing that we want to do is to have His Majesty, their Majesties, embarrassed.”
Pressed on whether she thought it should be delayed, Dame Emily told BBC Radio 4: “I don’t know what the discussions are. I don’t know what the programme would involve, but I think it needs to be thought through very carefully as to whether or not it’s appropriate to go ahead now, or maybe have a limited programme or delay it. But we can’t just pretend that there isn’t a background of war.”
She added: “I suspect it would be safer to delay it but I don’t know the details.”
Dame Emily said that at the moment the US has a President “who indulges in the most extraordinary abusive behaviour of leaders and their countries, putting private messages into the public and insulting entire countries and mimicking fellow leaders and that sort of thing”.
She said at times it means saying “no” to Mr Trump, adding: “But it’s not going to last. There will be another President coming and our relationship with the United States will fundamentally remain strong, I believe.”