President tweets that ‘big trade deal is possible once UK gets rid of the shackles’

Theresa May will insist the relationship between the US and the UK is “a great partnership, but one I believe we can make greater still” as she hosts Donald Trump in Downing Street on Tuesday, in one of her final acts as Conservative leader.

With just days to go until she resigns as leader of her party, the prime minister and her husband, Philip, will welcome the outspoken president for discussions at No 10.

Trump and May will not hold a one-to-one bilateral meeting, but they will attend a series of other events painstakingly choreographed to underscore the connections between the two nations.

The two leaders will start the day by jointly hosting a business breakfast with US and UK firms, highlighting the claimed benefits of a post-Brexit bilateral free trade deal.

Speaking about the relationship between the two countries, the prime minister will say: “It is a great partnership, but one I believe we can make greater still. With a bilateral free trade agreement, with broader economic cooperation and by continuing to work together to underpin, shape and influence the global economy and its rules and institutions – keeping markets free, fair and open, and keeping our industries competitive.”

Trump tweeted on Monday afternoon that a “big Trade Deal is possible once UK gets rid of the shackles”.

However, ministers have been forced to reiterate that the NHS would not be put up for grabs in negotiations, after the US ambassador, Woody Johnson, suggested on Sunday that “the entire economy”, including healthcare, should be “on the table”. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said the NHS was “not for sale”.

Executives of Barclays and the British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline are among those invited to the breakfast meeting at St James’s Palace in central London, but it is a much smaller affair than the business leaders’ banquet at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire that attracted about 150 guests during Trump’s visit to the UK last year.

The meeting, which is expected to last about an hour, will be attended by Ivanka Trump and the Duke of York.

Invitations were extended to an equal number of US and UK businesses, across a range of sectors including defence, banking and pharmaceuticals. Among the business leaders expected to attend are the BAE Systems chairman, Sir Roger Carr, National Grid’s chief executive, John Pettigrew, GSK’s Emma Walmsley and Jes Staley of Barclays. Rakesh Kapoor, the outgoing chief executive of the consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser, is also on the list.

US business leaders are expected to include the Lockheed Martin chief executive, Marillyn Hewson, and the head of Estée Lauder UK and Ireland, Philippe Warnery.

Q&A Itinerary: What will Trump be doing during his UK state visit? Show Hide After arriving in the UK on Air Force One on Monday 3 June, US president Donald Trump will be formally welcomed in a ceremony in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. It will be attended by the Queen and Prince Charles. The president will then attend a private lunch at the palace, which is expected to be attended by Prince Harry, but not his wife, who Trump recently described as 'nasty'. Following a wreath-laying ceremony in Westminster Abbey, Donald Trump will join Prince Charles for an afternoon tea at Clarence House. The Queen, Prince Charles and Prince Harry will then host a state banquet in the evening, which will be attended by prominent US citizens who live in the UK, as well as political and civic leaders. On Tuesday 4 June the visit includes a breakfast meeting with Prince Andrew, and then talks and a press conference with prime minister Theresa May at Downing Street. On the Tuesday evening Trump hosts a dinner at the residence of the US ambassador. On Wednesday 5 June Trump will take part in commemoration services in Portsmouth to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The day ends with the Queen formally bidding farewell to the US president. Trump’s entourage will also include two identical seven-seat black armoured limousines nicknamed ‘The Beast’, and a number of presidential helicopters. The president has at his side at all times one of five rotating military aides who carry the nuclear ‘football’ which can trigger a missile strike - equipped with communication tools and a book with prepared war plans. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/X90178

Whitehall is trying inject relevance into the political talks in Downing Street by stressing the two sides will address a full agenda covering evidence of Iran’s disruption in the Middle East, relations with China and Russia, and the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Whitehall sources said the issues would remain largely unaltered regardless of May’s successor. No 10 is not expecting a major communique or any announcements and is instead pointing to the importance of the common commitment by 16 world leaders on the anniversary of D-day, the largest gathering of world leaders since the 2014 Nato summit in 2014 in Wales.

Government sources stressed that “irrespective of whoever is in office, there are factors in the UK-US alliance that make it more important than any other”.

No 10 rejected suggestions from the US national security adviser, John Bolton, that the UK might defect from its European allies Germany and France by ending its support for the Iran nuclear deal once Brexit goes ahead. UK support for the deal was independent of its EU membership, officials said.

British officials are waiting to hear if the US will go ahead with a planned presentation to the UN security council of intelligence evidence that Iran, or its surrogates, were behind the recent attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf.

May became one of the first world leaders to visit Trump in the White House, in January 2017. She gave a speech in Philadelphia, en route, praising some of the multilateral institutions Trump has criticised including Nato and the UN.

“Some of these organisations are in need of reform and renewal to make them relevant to our needs today. But we should be proud of the role our two nations – working in partnership – played in bringing them into being, and in bringing peace and prosperity to billions of people as a result,” she said.

May will press home that message with her gift to the president, presenting him with a framed copy of Winston Churchill’s personal draft of the Atlantic Charter, agreed with President Roosevelt in August 1941.

The document set out the two leaders’ goals for the postwar world, including the hope that “all nations of the world must be guided in spirit to the abandonment of the use of force” and the promise of “fullest cooperation” between nations in improving citizens’ living standards.

Melania Trump will be given a souvenir Downing Street tea set – and she and Philip May will attend a garden party with staff from the US embassy and No 10. The two leaders and their delegations will lunch on Paignton crab, Lake District beef and Eton Mess.