Will PM f ly to US for June summit?

BORIS Johnson could travel to the US next month to meet Donald Trump at the G7 summit.

Downing Street said it was still exploring arrangements for the event after the President raised the prospect of a face-toface meeting.

The gathering of leaders from the US, Germany, France, Canada, Japan, Italy and the UK was initially planned for June 10-12.

But amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus crisis in mid-March Mr Trump said the summit would be held by video conference.

Now he wants to go back to meeting in person and would like it to be held at Camp David, the President’s rural estate.

He tweeted that hosting it face to face would be a signal to the world of ‘normalisation’ and other countries were starting to make their own ‘comeback’.

Mr Johnson’s spokesman said No 10 will look at the proposals made by the US before making a decision on attendance, adding that hosting arrangements are for Washington to decide as the holders of the current G7 presidency.

He added: ‘We are in close contact with the White House about the summit.’ Mr Johnson would follow guidelines surrounding travel in

‘In close contact with the White House’

the current coronavirus climate, he added. It is understood the Prime Minister and his team would probably be exempt from the quarantine rules that will force those coming into Britain to self-isolate for two weeks.

It is unclear if other participants will agree to a face-to-face summit.

The US and UK are the two worst affected countries in the world for coronavirus-related deaths with more than 130,000 combined.

Meanwhile Nicola Sturgeon urged Mr Trump to ‘be more responsible’ in his public messaging over coronavirus.

At Scotland’s daily briefing in Edinburgh the First Minister said: ‘I say this not just as the leader of a government, I say this as a citizen – I would like to see the President of the United States, in his demeanour and public utterances around dealing with this virus, be just a little bit more responsible.’

Mr Trump drew criticism last month when he publicly asked one of his top health advisers to look into the possibility of using disinfectant to counter Covid-19, which he said would ‘knock it out in a minute’.

The President later claimed that he was making the comments ‘sarcastically’ and that he wanted ‘to see what would happen’ as a result of the question.