Nigel Farage has been hugely popular in the US (Image: Getty)
Nigel Farage launched a blistering attack on Boris Johnson, accusing him of being an “occasional friend” of .
Eyebrows were raised after the former Prime Minister was invited into the Rotunda for the inauguration but Mr Farage, a close friend of Mr Trump’s was not.
Mr Farage attributed this to the former Tory leader being the “former Prime Minister of the nation”.
He told GB News: “I didn’t make the cut, sadly. I had a good seat. I mean, look, frankly, most of the people in the room were Congress members, Senate members, a few heads of state.
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Boris Johnson arrives at the inauguration (Image: Getty Images)
“[] is a former Prime Minister of the nation, and he’s an occasional friend of ‘s.
“He supports when he’s going up, and he doesn’t support when he’s going.
“I’ve supported him consistently now for almost a decade.”
Mr Farage, who has been in Washington since Thursday, was set to be among the VIP attendees at ’s swearing-in ceremony.
But he, Priti Patel, Suella Braverman and Liz Truss were all absent from the grand US Capitol building.
While Mr Farage may have missed out on a seat on the day, his presence in Washington has been the talk of the town among many Republicans.
He had a party hosted in his honour at the Hay Adams hotel on Friday, and was the only British official to attend all three Washington Balls over the course of the inauguration lead-up.
The Reform UK leader did attend ’s MAGA rally at the Capitol One Arena on Saturday, posting on X: “We are so back… We will never see anything quite like this ever again!”
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Sir Keir would seek early talks with Mr Trump on a range of issues including trade, the war in and the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East.
Mr Lammy is one of a series of high-profile Labour figures who have expressed trenchant opinions about Mr Trump in the past, calling him a “racist and KKK/neo-Nazi sympathiser”.
Relations between the Trump camp and Sir Keir’s party descended into a legal row after Labour volunteers campaigned for during her election defeat.
But Mr Lammy has sought to build bridges with the incoming president’s allies and the Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister met Mr Trump in New York in September.
The Foreign Secretary described Mr Trump as a “revisionist actor” who “wants to change the rules of the game”.
Prime ministers have historically not attended the inauguration of a new president, but have sought to be early visitors to the White House.
Mr Lammy said: “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. 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 will be discussing this with within the next few weeks.”
Following speculation that Labour grandee Lord Mandelson’s diplomatic appointment could be blocked by the US, Mr Lammy said he is the “right man for this moment” with experience as a former business secretary and trade chief.
“He’s looking forward to presenting his credentials to ,” Mr Lammy said.
And despite opposition within the Trump camp to the Chagos Islands deal, Mr Lammy said he was confident that the intelligence and military agencies in the US would persuade the new president it was a good agreement.
The UK plans to cede sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius, leasing back the strategically important Diego Garcia base used by the US for 99 years at a reported annual cost of around £90 million.
Sir Keir and Mr Lammy have argued that International Court of Justice rulings in favour of Mauritius had jeopardised the legal status of the base.
But allies of Mr Trump, including his pick as secretary of state Marco Rubio, have voiced concerns this could allow Chinese influence to increase on the islands around the base.
Mr Lammy said: “It’s right and proper that looks at that deal and is confident about that deal.
“But I would say that this has been through an inter-agency process in the United States and I suspect he will come to the same conclusions as the last administration.”
The Foreign Secretary said Mr Trump believed in the US being “strong and powerful” but he was “not a man who, in any sense, is a warmonger”.
He told Radio 4’s Today programme: “The I met… had incredible grace, generosity, very keen to be a good host, very funny, very, very, very friendly, very warm, I have to say, about the UK, our royal family, Scotland.”
He said he sees Mr Trump as a “revisionist actor” who “wants to change the rules of the game” and seems very focused on the possibility of normalising Saudi relations with , which he said can only come if there is a path to a two-state solution in the Middle East.