US embassy opens new site without Trump

The new US embassy in London has officially been opened, days after a spokesman hit back at president Donald Trump for suggesting its move to a new location was a “bad deal”.

The US president cancelled a visit to the UK to open the new American embassy this month, criticising the facility’s move from Grosvenor Square in the prestigious Mayfair district of central London to an “off location” at Nine Elms, south of the Thames.

However, a US embassy spokesman insisted the embassy was completed within its £730 million budget and said the plan to move it was developed in 2007 when George W Bush was in the White House, suggesting Mr Trump was wrong to blame his predecessor, Barack Obama, who was in office when the sale took place.