Trump UK visit: Farage meets president as Tory leader hopefuls reject Trump’s demand NHS is opened to US firms
'Comprehensive' trade deal promised as US leader suggests American involvement in healthcare a possibility
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has insisted the NHS would be “on the table” in any post-Brexit trade talks. “When you’re dealing with trade everything is on the table. So NHS or anything else, a lot more than that,” the US president said at a press conference with Theresa May.
He earlier promised, not for the first time, a “very substantial” post-Brexit trade deal with the UK as he met Ms May on the second day of his state visit, following a lavish royal banquet at Buckingham Palace. The leaders also discussed the role of Huawei in the UK’s 5G network.
Meanwhile, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has said he had a “good meeting” with the president at the US ambassador’s residence and that Mr Trump “really believes in Brexit”.
Mr Farage was photographed being driven into Winfield House on Tuesday afternoon.
He later tweeted: “Good meeting with President Trump - he really believes in Brexit and is loving his trip to London.”
Mr Farage has campaigned for years to take Britain out of the European Union and is one of Trump’s most prominent British supporters. The president has called him a friend.
Mr Farage’s newly founded Brexit Party was the big winner in last month’s European Parliament elections in Britain, scooping up support from voters angry that the UK has not left the EU.
He has criticised the prime minister's divorce deal with the bloc and said Britain should leave the EU without an agreement.
Mr Trump praised Ms May’s handling of Brexit on Tuesday, saying she had gotten a good deal.
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for the live blog to load
The meeting with business leaders at St James' Palace will bring together 10 leading companies – five from the UK and five from the US. They will explore where cooperation could benefit both sides.
Chief executives and senior representatives from BAE Systems, GlaxoSmithKline, National Grid, Barclays, Reckitt Benckiser, JP Morgan, Lockheed Martin, Goldman Sachs International, Bechtel and Splunk are expected to attend.
Additional reporting by AP
Mr Trump has arrived at St James' Palace, where he'll be met by the Duke of York.
Trouble appears to be brewing at home for Mr Trump.
Democrats in the US House of Representatives have announced a series of Mueller report hearings that will examine what they are calling Mr Trump's "most overt acts of obstruction", writes Clark Mindock.
The hearings will also look into findings by special counsel Robert Mueller's team that Russia actively sought to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, and are set to begin with the question of obstruction on 10 June.
Jerry Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, announced the hearings in a statement accusing the White House of attempting to "stonewall" Congressional oversight, and pledging to move forward with the investigation whether the president cooperates or not.
Nigel Farage has said he is waiting for a call from Mr Trump and does not know if he will be able to meet the US president, Reuters reports.
Sadiq Khan has called Donald Trump the “poster boy of the far right movement around the world” in the latest episode of their public dispute, writes Peter Stubley.
The London mayor claimed the US president’s behaviour was normalising and bringing to the mainstream the abhorrent views of white supremacists and other extremists.
He made the comments in an interview on the American progressive politics podcast Pod Save America released on the day Mr Trump arrived in the UK for his state visit.
Donald Trump and Theresa May speak during a conference at St James's Palace on Tuesday (AP/Alex Brandon)
Mr Trump has told Theresa May that the US would sign a "very substantial trade" deal with the UK once Brexit has been delivered.
"Let's do this deal," the president added on Tuesday.
News of the promise came as the leaders hosted a business roundtable meeting.
Russia has hit back after one of Donald Trump's tweets, sent on Monday during his UK state visit.
The US president had said: "Russia has informed us that they have removed most of their people from Venezuela."
But the Interfax news agency cited an unnamed source in Caracas as saying Moscow was continuing to support Venezuela through a long-standing programme of military technical assistance.
Additional reporting by Reuters
As we mentioned earlier, Mr Trump will be at St James' Palace for business talks until 11.10am. After that:
At 11.20am he will arrive at Downing Street, and meet Theresa May.
From 11.40am to 12.25pm the pair will hold an "expanded bilateral meeting", ahead of a working lunch. Philip May is to host Melania Trump at a garden party.
At 1.45pm the leaders will hold a press conference, before Mr Trump and the first lady are given a tour of the Churchill War Rooms at 2.25pm.
The Trumps will leave Whitehall at 3.20pm and head back to Winfield House.
At 7.45pm they will greed the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, who are attending a reciprocal dinner at Winfield House on behalf of the Queen. The dinner is set to begin at 8.35pm.
We know what the Queen gave the Trumps yesterday, and we now have details of their gift to her.
The Trumps presented the Queen with a silver and silk poppy brooch in a custom White House wood jewellery box in red leather box, the first lady's office said.
The Duke of Edinburgh given a personalised Air Force One jacket and a first-edition signed copy of James Doolittle's autobiography, I Could Never Be So Lucky Again.
General Doolittle was an American aviation pioneer who led the daylight air raid on Tokyo and other Japanese cities four months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour.
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