When US president-elect Donald Trump posed for pictures with UKIP leader Nigel Farage on Saturday night, he was accompanied by major UKIP donor Arron Banks, a handful of aides associated with the Leave.EU campaign group, and Raheem Kassam, the 30-year-old editor of Breitbart London and an occasional UKIP leadership candidate.

Now Kassam, a former Farage aide who dropped out of the contest to lead the British political party last month, has said he has his eye on a bigger prize: a job in the White House under Donald Trump.

Speaking from New York, Kassam said he would be looking for a job at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue "probably not in the short term but maybe in the long term".

"The White House will need a special assistant on European affairs, so I will be pushing for that."

Relations between the UK and the US governments are strained, with few key British politicians having strong connections with the team around Trump.

By contrast, figures around Breitbart and UKIP have been making overtures to the new president's team for months. Downing Street has already been forced to insist it will not rely on Farage as a go-between for any discussions with Trump.