UK and US are ‘joined at the hip’

US president Donald Trump has said he expects a “tremendous” increase in trade with the UK as a result of talks which he said were getting under way.

Speaking as he met Theresa May in Davos, Mr Trump sought to kill off suggestions of a rift sparked by the prime minister’s rebuke over his retweet of videos posted by a UK far-right group and his decision not to visit London for the opening of the US embassy.

Declaring that he wanted to correct the “false rumour” of a transatlantic fallingout, he assured Mrs May: “We love your country.”

Britain and the US are “joined at the hip” militarily and America will always be ready to “fight for you”, he told her.

In response to reporters’ questions, both Mr Trump and Mrs May said they would “talk about” his mooted state visit to the UK. Mr Trump is set to visit the UK later this year, Downing Street said afterwards.

During their talks Mrs May also raised the issue of aircraft manufacturer Bombardier, which has a major plant in Northern Ireland and is at the centre of a US trade dispute. A Downing Street spokesman said: “The two leaders began by discussing Bombardier, with the PM reiterating the importance of the company’s jobs in Northern Ireland.”

Their talks also took in the Middle East and Brexit, Downing Street said.

Shaking hands with the president, above, after their bilateral meeting at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort, Mrs May said they had enjoyed a “great discussion” about the prospects for improved trade relations.

And Mr Trump said he expected trade between the US and UK to “increase many times” over the coming years.

“The trade concepts and discussions that will be taking place are going to lead to tremendous increases in trade between our two countries, which is great for both in terms of jobs,” said the president.

“We look forward to that and we are starting that process pretty much as we speak.”

Meeting Mrs May for talks shortly after her keynote address to the WEF, Mr Trump said: “We have great respect for everything you are doing and we love your country, we think it’s truly great.

“We are working on transactions in terms of economic development, trade, maybe most importantly military.

“We are very much joined at the hip when it comes to the military.

“We have the same ideas, the same ideals, and there’s nothing that would happen to you that we won’t be there to fight for you. You know that.”

Mrs May said she and the president enjoyed “a great discussion” in their meeting, adding: “We continue to have that really special relationship between the UK and the United States, standing shoulder to shoulder because we are facing the same challenges across the world.

“As you say, we are working together to defeat those challenges and to meet them.”