PM expected to fly out to meet US president-elect soon, as Ukip leader’s allies protest he has ‘hotline’ to Stephen Bannon

Theresa May has moved to stop Nigel Farage interfering in the UK’s relationship with Donald Trump, as Downing Street prepares its own diplomatic offensive to smooth over relations with the US president-elect.

The prime minister is expected to fly out to the US to meet the president-elect at the “earliest opportunity”, while sources revealed the Foreign Office is preparing a meeting between Boris Johnson and vice-president elect Mike Pence within weeks.

It comes just days after Trump rolled out the red carpet for Farage during an hour-long meeting in New York over the weekend in a move that was widely seen as a source of diplomatic humiliation for May.

Farage has offered to help May get to know Trump but No 10 categorically shut down that idea on Monday and signalled that it was trying to expedite its own efforts to build bridges with the new US administration.

“The president-elect talked about enjoying the same close relationship that Reagan and Thatcher did. I don’t remember there being a third person in that relationship,” May’s official spokeswoman said.

Farage reacted with anger to the rejection, accusing the prime minister and her “ghastly apparatchiks” of betraying the national interest by refusing to capitalise on his good relationship with Trump.

The Ukip leader claimed No 10 could do with his expertise since members of Trump’s team have long memories about disobliging remarks made about the president-elect, arguing there were “fences to be mended”.

“Nobody in this administration in the UK has any connections with the Trump team at all, and yet they are prepared on behalf of the country to cut off their noses to spite their faces,” he told LBC.

His closest ally, Arron Banks, told the Guardian it was “nuts” for May not to appreciate that Farage effectively had a “hotline to the White House” and Trump’s new chief strategist Steve Bannon.

The Ukip donor and Brexit backer claimed Farage had already had an in-depth discussion with Trump about global politics on issues from immigration to Nato and would be able to offer valuable diplomatic insight.

“It was about an hour and we talked about all sorts, whether Theresa May was going to deliver Brexit. It was not a jokey meeting. They were really going through all the big issues,” he said.

According to those present, Trump did not know the names of many UK politicians but understood the issues around Brexit, including immigration.

The comments come amid reports of a cabinet split in which some ministers urged May to use Farage’s links to Trump.

However, cabinet members and Tory MPs have played down the idea of division, with many arguing it would not be appropriate for Ukip leader to act as a conduit.

The international trade secretary, Liam Fox, is understood not to have had any contact with Farage or those close to him, nor to have spoken to journalists.

George Osborne, the former chancellor, told ITV’s Agenda that there was no way May would be “contracting foreign policy out to Nigel Farage”.

Nigel Adams, a Tory MP with strong links to senior US politicians, said May and her ministers were best placed to handle the relationship with Trump.

“I find it inconceivable that somebody who has made it his duty to try and unseat Conservative councillors and MPs over the past few years be rewarded with an official role representing a Conservative-led government,” he said.

Although he said there was no harm in picking Farage’s brain given his close links to the US, he pointed out that Tory cabinet ministers such as Fox had similarly strong links.

Mark Field, a Tory vice-chair on international issues, has spent the past 18 months building relations between his party and the Republicans.

He said it was unfair to criticise officials such as the UK ambassador to the US, Sir Kim Darroch, over their links to Trump’s team, pointing out that they had been dealing with Democrats in government for eight years.

“Donald Trump was an unconventional candidate who appeared to come out of the blue, so everyone was slightly flat-footed,” he said.



Field also argued that May was right to reject Farage’s advances, saying the key diplomatic link was a “government to government relationship”.

It comes as sources suggested Johnson could travel to the US by the end of the year in a bid to build links with the incoming Republican administration after being extended an informal invitation from Pence.



Johnson – who is also likely to meet former US speaker Newt Gingrich – struck a positive note on Monday as he claimed Trump’s election should be seen as a “moment of opportunity” for the UK. After complaining about the “whinge-o-rama” in response to the election result, Johnson added: “I think there is a lot to be positive about and it is very important not to pre-judge the president-elect or his administration.”

The moves are part of a concerted effort to ensure that the election result does not sour relations between Britain and the US, with May planning to travel to the US for a face-to-face meeting with Trump himself.

This comes as the prime minister warned that Trump’s election, like Brexit, had sent a message to “global elites” but also mounted a staunch defence of globalisation and free trade.

“People – often those on modest to low incomes living in rich countries like our own – see their jobs being outsourced and wages undercut. They see their communities changing around them and don’t remember agreeing to that change,” she said.

“They see the emergence of a new global elite who sometimes seem to play by a different set of rules and whose lives are far removed from their everyday existence. And the tensions and differences between those who are gaining from globalisation and those who feel they are losing out have been exposed ever more starkly through the growth of social media.”

She said liberalism and globalisation were a force for good, but admitted that politicians had failed to look at the impact on people closer to home. “When you fail to see that the liberal consensus that has held sway for decades has failed to maintain the consent of many people, you’re not the champion of liberalism but the enemy of it,” she said.