US vice president JD Vance is to stay at David Lammy’s grace and favour country house when he visits the UK on holiday this summer, reports suggest.
Mr Vance and his family will begin their summer holiday this Friday with a stay at Chevening, the Foreign Secretary’s Grade I-listed mansion in Kent, according to the Telegraph newspaper.
The pair are said to have developed a warm friendship, bonding over their difficult childhoods and shared Christian faith.
Mr Lammy is reported to have attended mass at the vice president’s Washington residence during a visit in March, and now plans to repay the favour with the stay at his country home.
The two are expected to hold a bilateral meeting before being joined by their families at Chevening.
“Lammy has visited Vance’s family and the relationship looks like it will continue to grow on a personal as well as a professional basis,” a source told the Telegraph.
The vice president and his family are also expected to visit Hampton Court Palace during their trip to the UK, the mainstay of which will be spent in the Cotswolds.
Mr Vance’s British holiday comes just weeks after Donald Trump travelled to Scotland, on a private visit his golf courses.
There he also met with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen to agree a trade deal with the bloc, and with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Mr Trump will return to the UK for a full state visit in September.
The Foreign Secretary’s burgeoning relationship with Mr Vance represents a political change of heart, as he was once an outspoken critic of Mr Trump.
Mr Lammy described the US president as a “racist and KKK/neo-Nazi sympathiser” when Labour was in opposition, but since coming to power has brushed off his remarks as “old news”.
Asked about Mr Vance’s visit to the UK, a Foreign Office spokesman said: “Ministerial engagements will be announced in the usual way.”
