Sir Keir Starmer sought to woo Donald Trump with an invite for an unprecedented state visit ahead of crunch talks on Ukraine and the economy.
The Prime Minister appeared to have already got the president onside on one of the hot-button issues, with Mr Trump appearing to back the UK’s plans for the Chagos Islands in front of the cameras in the Oval Office ahead of their meeting.
The transatlantic relationship appeared to have come under strain in recent weeks, following Mr Trump’s interventions on Ukraine – including calling Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator – and the threats of tariffs against the EU and steel imports from the UK.
Shortly after his arrival at the White House, Sir Keir handed his US counterpart a letter from the King, marked “private and confidential”, inviting him for a second state visit and talks ahead of time to discuss logistics and a potential programme.
The letter, signed by Charles, said that “this is unprecedented by a US President”.
“That is why I would find it helpful for us to be able to discuss, together, a range of options for location and programme content,” it added.
Sir Keir described the letter as “really special” and said the move “symbolises the strength of the relationship between us”.
Ahead of the note being handed over, he had said that he would be travelling to the UK in the “near future”.
The leaders took questions from the press for more than 20 minutes, covering topics including trade and free speech, before they headed off for private talks.
The high-stakes meeting comes amid uncertainty over the future of Ukraine and what guarantees the US could give to maintain a peace deal.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer arriving at the White House (Carl Court/PA)
The conflict in Ukraine featured heavily, and at one point the Prime Minster corrected Mr Trump when he claimed that Europe but not the US was getting back some of the cash it had provided to Ukraine.
The president had said that Europeans “they get their money back” whereas “we don’t get the money back”, but Sir Keir followed up by saying “quite a bit of ours was gifted. It was given. There were some loans, but mainly it was gifted actually.”
It has been expected that Sir Keir would use their meetings to push the president on providing security protections for Kyiv in the event of a peace deal being secured to deter Vladimir Putin from launching another attack.
Ahead of Thursday’s talks, Mr Trump had said that he would not provide guarantees “beyond very much” and has insisted it is for Europeans to protect Ukraine.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is expected at the White House on Friday to sign a deal that will give the US access to Ukraine’s rare earth mineral resources, which Mr Trump has now described as a “backstop”.
He told reporters: “It’s a backstop, you could say, I don’t think anybody’s going to play around if we’re there with a lot of workers and having to do with rare earths and other things which we need for our country.”
US President Donald Trump and US Vice President JD Vance meeting Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy in the Oval Office (Carl Court/PA)
Sir Keir has already said he is prepared to deploy British troops as part of a force to safeguard any peace deal, but only if the US offers security guarantees to European soldiers.
Asked if the US would aid British peacekeepers if they were attacked by Russia, Mr Trump said: “I’ve always found about the British, they don’t need much help … they can take care of themselves.”
Mr Trump also indicated that he would be prepared to back the UK’s plans to hand over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
Ahead of Thursday’s meetings, Foreign Secretary David Lammy had effectively offered the United States a veto on the matter because of the implications for US security, and allies of the president have criticised the plan.
“We’re going to have some discussions about that very soon, and I have a feeling it’s going to work out very well,” Mr Trump told gathered reporters.
“They’re talking about a very long-term, powerful lease, a very strong lease, about 140 years actually.
“That’s a long time, and I think we’ll be inclined to go along with your country.”
The two leaders are due to hold a press conference on Thursday evening after their discussions.