
Keir Starmer has accepted an invitation to visit US president Donald Trump during his expected trip to Scotland this month, according to a report.
The details of the visit, including the date, are still being finalised, Reuters reported. The White House has not commented on the report.
Trump and Starmer signed a trade deal last month on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada that formally lowered some US tariffs on imports from Britain.
The deal came after the prime minister visited the White House in February, presenting Trump with an invitation from King Charles for a future state visit, which Trump accepted.
The US president is expected to visit his Turnberry and Aberdeenshire golf courses and is set to officially open a new 18-hole golf course at his resort on the North Sea coast at Menie, north of Aberdeen, named in honour of his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump. He is not expected to visit London during the trip.
Trump has made numerous visits to his golf course in Aberdeenshire, which he bought as a small country estate and opened in 2012, and several trips to his more prestigious resort at Turnberry in Ayrshire.
His mother was born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, and Trump has frequently claimed that has given him a close bond to Scotland. He has visited Lewis once and spent little more than a minute in her former home.
Scottish police said on Wednesday they were preparing for a possible visit by the US president to Scotland, which would mark his first visit to Britain since the US election last November.
The assistant chief constable, Emma Bond, said: “Planning is under way for a potential visit to Scotland later this month by the president of the United States. While official confirmation has not yet been made, it is important that we prepare in advance for what would be a significant policing operation.”
The long-rumoured visit is not expected to include a meeting with King Charles, despite earlier suggestions the US leader could meet the monarch at either Balmoral or Dumfries House in Ayrshire.