Prayers and tears Lammy's unlikely wooing of JD Vance

It was famously something that Tony Blair did not do with George W Bush, or at least not something to which the then prime minister wished to admit. But these are very different times.

- Daniel Boffey

When the US vice-president, JD Vance, and his family join David Lammy at the foreign secretary's grace-and-favour home in Kent at the start of their summer holiday in the UK, they are expected to deepen their relationship by praying together, it is understood.

Within the grounds of Chevening lies the 12th-century St Botolph's church. It is Anglican but, security risks and denominational differences aside, it may present an option for a place to take communion, sources suggested.

Vance is a Catholic and Lammy has described his faith as Anglo-Catholic. The two men took mass in Vance's residence in Washington when the vice-president hosted Lammy and his family in March.

The burgeoning relationship between the two, freshly evidenced by word that they will spend time together before the Vances head to the Cotswolds, may surprise some.

As a backbencher, Lammy described Donald Trump as "a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath". Now, Trump is "someone that we can build a relationship with" and Vance a "friend".

The philosophy behind Lammy's foreign policy has been described as "progressive realism" - taking the world as it is and not as we might wish it to be.