Trump is not going to invade Greenland, says Lammy

The foreign secretary, David Lammy, said yesterday that a US military seizure of Greenland was not going to happen, as he played down Donald Trump's threats to take the territory from Denmark.

- Patrick Wintour

"No Nato countries have gone to war [with each other] since the establishment of Nato, and I do not envisage that," he said, adding: "It is not going to happen."

Lammy's remarks, in a round of broadcast interviews in advance of a setpiece speech yesterday, formed part of an array of views that exposed differences with the Trump administration covering defence spending targets, the scale of the threat posed to Europe by Vladimir Putin, the return of the Islamic State-linked detainee Shamima Begum to the UK, and convincing China not to throw in its lot with Russia.

The differences emerged despite Lammy insisting he was not in the business of condemning the UK's closest ally, but they underline how taxing it may be for the Labour government to tread an independent course with a demanding Trump administration.