Going it alone is not an option, either for Europe or for the United States.” The Sunday Times reported a leaked telegram from the British Ambassador to the United States, Sir Kim Darroch, suggesting Britain is well placed to influence US President-elect Donald Trump’s policies. He wrote, the “President-elect is above all an outsider and unknown quantity, whose campaign pronouncements may reveal his instincts, but will surely evolve and, particularly, be open to outside influence if pitched right…Having, we believe, built better relationships with his team than have the rest of the Washington diplomatic corps, we should be well placed to do this.”

Meanwhile, on The Andrew Marr Show, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Crispin Blunt said, “The Trump election is a big wakeup call for the European powers as to whether they are prepared to get serious about defence – first of all, moving towards the Nato goal of 2% of defence expenditure where they’re only spending about half – and also around defence integration.” He added that Trump was “entirely right” that other European Nato members have to spend more on defence to save Nato. Axel Schäfer, Deputy Chairman of the German SPD Parliamentary Group, has told The Times that, “Regarding foreign and security policy in general…With a more inward-looking Trump administration, it is in UK’s own interest to seek close co-operation with their EU partners in this field.”

Separately, The Financial Times reports that Britain and France have decided not to attend an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers, organised to “send a signal for what the EU expects” from Trump. This comes as Nigel Farage this weekend became the first British politician to meet Trump. Jean Claude-Juncker, President of the European Commission, has said “The election of Trump poses the risk of upsetting intercontinental relations in their foundation and in their structure.” He added, “We will need to teach the President-elect what Europe is and how it works.”