David Lammy to host JD Vance at Chevening
JD Vance is due to spend his summer holiday in the UK this year despite issuing six controversial statements about the country in a matter of months. Foreign Secretary David Lammy will host the US vice president at Chevening House in Kent on Friday – a Grade 1 listed mansion with sprawling gardens, a lake, and a maze.
The White House confirmed: “The Vice President and Foreign Secretary will discuss a variety of topics pertaining to the US-UK relationship.” This comes while Mr Vance holidays in the UK with his family, expected to spend most of their time in the Cotswolds and reportedly visiting Hampton Court Palace. Despite his apparent fondness for holidaying in Britain, the Republican has made a series of inflammatory comments about the country in the months since adopting his role as VP.
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JD Vance has made many inflammatory comments about Britain. (Image: Getty)
1. ‘Some random country’
Less than two months into his tenure, the US VP faced heavy criticism from European nations after he mocked the plan to deploy troops in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping mission.
Mr Vance suggested Britain was “some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years”, though denied it was a reference to the country once he began facing backlash.
He said: “If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine.
“That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”
2. ‘First Islamist country with nuclear weapons’
Just days before he was formally selected to be Donald Trump’s running mate, Mr Vance called the UK the “first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon”.
Speaking at the National Conservativism conference, he told attendees: “I have to beat up on the UK – just one additional thing. I was talking with a friend recently.
“We were talking about one of the big dangers in the world, of course, is nuclear proliferation, though, of course, the Biden administration doesn’t care about it.
“And I was talking about what is the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon and we were like, maybe it’s Iran, maybe Pakistan already kind of counts, and then we sort of finally decided maybe it’s actually the UK, since Labour just took over.”
The US VP claimed free speech is retreating across Europe. (Image: Getty)
3. ‘Free speech is in retreat’
Mr Vance lectured European nations, including the UK, on free speech during remarks before the Munich Security Conference in February.
He highlighted the case of Southampton physiotherapist Adam Smith-Connor, who was convicted of breaching a safe zone outside an abortion clinic in Bournemouth by silently praying.
The VP said: “In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.
“A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 metres from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes, not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own.”
4. ‘The democratic project of the West is falling apart’
The Republican slammed European leaders in April for failing to control immigration. He claimed they were putting democracy in danger by failing to take voters’ demands for immigration controls seriously.
Mr Vance made the comment as he insisted that the US under Donald Trump’s leadership continued to be an ally of European nations, including the UK.
Speaking to the website UnHerd, he said: “We’re very frustrated – ‘we’ meaning me, the president, certainly the entire Trump administration – that European populations keep on crying out for more sensible economic and migration policies, and the leaders of Europe keep on going through these elections and keep on offering the European peoples the opposite of what they seem to have voted for.
“The entire democratic project of the West falls apart when the people keep on asking for less migration, and they keep on being rewarded by their leaders with more migration.”
5. ‘You’re lazy!’
The US VP once again launched into a rant about the UK in March, blaming the sluggish economy on soaring levels of immigration.
He blasted Britain along with other “lazy” Western countries which he said have relied on imported “cheap labour”.
Mr Vance told a meeting with tech bosses in Washington DC: “I’d say that if you look at nearly every country, from Canada to the UK, that imports large amounts of cheap labour, you’ve seen productivity stagnate.
“That’s not a total happenstance. I think that the connection is very direct.”
6. ‘Europe is at risk of civilizational suicide’
In yet another attack on European free speech and immigration levels, Mr Vance claimed the continent is at risk of “civilisational suicide” during an interview on Fox News’s Ingraham Angle show.
He said “too many countries” are “unable or unwilling” to control their borders, claiming Europeans’ free speech is being limited amid protests against “things like the border invasion” which helped get Donald Trump elected.
The VP said: “Yes, the Europeans annoy me sometimes and yes, I disagree with them on certain issues, but we have to remember that is the cradle of western civilisation, the entire idea of Christian civilisation that led to the founding of the United States of America – that was formed in Europe.
“Europe is at risk, I think, of engaging in civilizational suicide. You see them starting to limit the free speech of their own citizens.”