Sir Keir Starmer will fly to Washington for talks with Donald Trump within weeks, Foreign Secretary David Lammy has signalled.
World leaders are vying to be among the first to get a White House meeting with the new US president.
Given the close ties between America and Britain, the Prime Minister would be expected to be high up on the list.
But Labour politicians have been withering in past criticism of Trump and the party was reported to have angered some of his allies when it emerged some of its ranks were heading over to America to support Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
As Washington prepared for Trump’s inauguration on Monday, Mr Lammy floated a possible timescale for a meeting between Sir Keir and the new president.
“I think that when you look at past prime ministers, it’s taken between a week or up to a month to come to Washington,” said the Foreign Secretary.
“The importance is the strength of the relationship and the serious discussions that we have.
“In the end, we have war in Europe, we have a ceasefire in the Middle East, but it’s incredibly fragile, and there are important malign actors like Iran that we’ve got to discuss with the United States and, of course, our growing trade relations with the United States.
“So, lots to discuss, and I’m very confident that Keir Starmer will be discussing this with Donald Trump within the next few weeks.”
The US President-elect is weighing up whether to approve the appointment of Lord Mandelson as the UK's new ambassador in Washington, the fate of the Chagos Islands deal and the extent to which tariffs will hit Britain.
Mr Lammy also told of Trump’s “incredible grace and generosity” in the hours before his inauguration as US president for a second term.
The Foreign Secretary is one of several Labour Cabinet ministers who have been highly critical of Trump in the past.
Mr Lammy tweeted in 2018 that the US property tycoon was a “woman-hating Neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath” and has also described him as “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathiser”.
But asked if he had changed his views on him, Mr Lammy recalled a dinner that Sir Keir and he had with the top Republican last September.
He told BBC radio: “In this role, I have said that the approach has got to be progressive realism and that is that you meet the world as it is, not as you would wish it to be.
“The Donald Trump that I met was a man who had incredible grace, generosity, very keen to be a good host, very funny, very, very friendly, very warm about the UK, our Royal Family, Scotland, his relationship with Scotland, his mother...
“That was the Donald Trump that I found.”
He added: “I do recognise that there was a survey this week, 70 per cent of the world welcome Donald Trump coming to power....
“And we have to recognise that 77 million Americans voted for him, up in African Americans communities voting for him, up in Latinos, up in young people, we have to reckon with that truth.”
