King Charles will go ahead with a state visit to the US in April, Buckingham Palace has confirmed, despite some politicians saying the trip will be a “humiliation” while Donald Trump’s war with Iran is ongoing.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said Keir Starmer had shown he was not prepared to stand up to the US president and cancel the visit.
The announcement of the visit came just minutes after Trump launched another verbal attack on the UK, saying the country should learn to “fight for yourselves” and take jet fuel from the Middle East using force. Last week Trump criticised the UK military, saying its aircraft carriers were “toys” and unwanted.
Davey said: “The prime minister is showing a staggering lack of backbone by pushing ahead with this state visit while Donald Trump treats our country with contempt.
“To send the king on a state visit to the US after Trump dismissed our Royal Navy as ‘toys’ is a humiliation, and a sign of a government too weak to stand up to bullies. What appalling thing does Trump have to do next to make the government see sense and cancel the state visit?”
The senior Labour MP Emily Thornberry had suggested previously it would be “safer to delay” the state visit, saying Charles and Camilla could be left feeling “embarrassed” because of the crisis.
Buckingham Palace said Charles and Camilla would undertake the visit at the end of April “on advice of his majesty’s government, and at the invitation of the president of the United States.”
Charles is expected to make an address to Congress and attend events marking the 250th anniversary of US independence.
It will be the king’s first visit to the US as monarch and the first state visit by a British sovereign to the US since Queen Elizabeth II’s tour in 2007.
Afterwards, Charles will visit Bermuda, without Camilla, for his first royal visit as monarch to a British Overseas Territory. Exact dates and details have yet to be disclosed.
State visits are rarely postponed, except for security reasons and illness, and the royal family’s soft power diplomacy is viewed as an important and unique way of engaging with Trump, who is well known for his love of the monarchy.
Trump declared this month that trip was going ahead and that he was “looking forward” to meeting the king again. More recently, he said: “He’s going to be here very soon, as you know, we’re going have a state dinner. It’s going be great.”
He added: “He’s a friend of mine.”
The president was feted with a second state visit to the UK, unprecedented for a US leader, last year.
He hailed Charles as a “great gentleman and a great king” during his stay, praised the Princess of Wales for being “so radiant and so healthy and so beautiful”, and later said he ate “whatever the hell they served us” at the state banquet.
Charles’s tour will raise questions over whether he will see his son Harry, with whom he has had a troubled relationship, his wife, Meghan and their children, Archie and Lili.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.theguardian.com ’
