Goodbye to all that: Labour split on future of the 'special relationship'

After the US took Venezuela, threatened to annex Greenland and seized oil tankers around the world, senior figures wonder whether transatlantic ties can survive the 'volatile' 47th president

- Rachel Sylvester

Last Wednesday, during a ceremony in Virginia to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, the deputy prime minister, David Lammy, presented a time capsule. The box, designed by the British architect Norman Foster, will be buried under the plaza at the Washington Monument with instructions that it should be reopened on 4 July 2276.

Along with soil from Mount Vernon, George Washington’s former residence, and Sulgrave Manor in Northamptonshire, built by ancestors of the first US president, the capsule contains a letter from Lammy. “The relationship between our two nations has never been stronger,” it says. “Over our long history together, the United Kingdom and the United States have become the closest of allies, united by shared values and mutual respect.”

But, after a week in which the US invaded Venezuela, threatened to annex Greenland and boarded oil tankers around the world, senior figures in Whitehall wonder whether the much-vaunted “special relationship” can survive the 47th president. Trump's declarations to the New York Times that “I don’t need international law” and that the only limitation on US military power is “my own morality”, led some to question whether it should.

The emergence of what one former ambassador describes as “Trump unleashed” has scrambled traditional assumptions and created new divisions in government.

According to Peter Ricketts, the former head of the Foreign Office who was David Cameron’s national security adviser, there are two crucial differences between Trump and all previous US presidents since the second world war. “He doesn’t accept that the US should be constrained by any set of international rules. It’s back to the world of strong men and raw power,” said Lord Ricketts. “And I don’t think Trump believes in the concept of allies. Those are fundamental shifts in the world that I've known in my 50 years in foreign affairs.”