US Secretary of State Tillerson sweeps into Downing Street

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson swept into Downing Street this morning (pictured) for talks during his flying visit to London

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson swept into Downing Street this morning for talks during his flying visit to London.

Mr Tillerson is due to hold talks with the National Security Adviser Mark Sedwill and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, while Prime Minister Theresa May will drop into a meeting. 

He will hold talks on Iran and North Korea and No 10 said Mrs May would reiterate Britain’s support for the Iranian nuclear deal opposed by the White House. 

The Secretary of State is in London following Donald Trump’s decision to cancel a visit to open the new US Embassy at Battersea. 

Downing Street will hope Mr Tillerson’s visit will help smooth tensions in the US-UK relationship after a series of ugly public spats.

Mrs May and Mr Trump are due to meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos later this week in what will be their first face to face talks in months.    

Mr Tillerson made his first to the new cube-shaped 12 storey glass embassy building, which opened for business earlier this month but has not been ceremonially opened.

The new embassy building has been lambasted by Mr Trump as ‘off location’.

Mr Tillerson was joined by US Ambassador to Britain Woody Johnson (right) as he arrived for talks on Iran and North Korea 

Mr Tillerson (right) made his first to the new cube-shaped 12 storey glass embassy building (pictured), which opened for business earlier this month but has not been ceremonially opened

Yesterday Mr Johnson called for President Trump to be welcomed to Britain ans warned that ‘puerile’ attacks on the US leader could harm the UK’s national interest.

The Foreign Secretary said America is one of Britain’s closest economic and security allies, with many billions of pounds of businesses between the two countries every year.

But he warned that ‘puerile and backward-looking’ Labour protesters trying to stop the President from visiting the UK risks jeopardising these close ties.

Britain is eager to strike a post Brexit free trade deal with America but there are fears that our increasingly frosty relations with our cousins across the Atlantic could harm the chances of getting one. 

Boris Johnson has launched a scathing attack on ‘puerile and backward-looking’ Labour protesters trying to stop Donald Trump from visiting the UK

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Johnson wrote:  ‘The Labour Party is, of course, entitled to espouse all manner of puerile and backward-looking ideas.

‘That is their privilege as a kind of glorified Momentum-based protest group.

‘But in opposing the visit of the president of the United States to this country, they risk actually damaging the national interest.

‘From Jeremy Corbyn downwards, Labour figures have been fulminating against what should be a routine event in the diplomatic calendar.’

The Foreign Secretary pointed out that Britain sells twice as much to America as we do to Germany.  

And he warned that Jeremy Corbyn is letting his anti-Americanism damage Britain’s ties with our closest ally. 

He added: ‘So when Jeremy Corbyn dismisses that partnership, and says there is nothing particularly important about it (‘no, I think there are many important relationships’, he burbles) the Labour leader betrays not only his anti-Americanism but also his ignorance of this country’s economic interests.’

Mr Johnson is due to meet Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, this week at the formal opening of America’s new embassy in London.

It comes after Mr Trump pulled out of the visit saying the new embassy in Battersea is in an ‘off location’.

Mr Johnson said the new US administration is showing a ‘new willingness to get stuck in’ in the Middle East to tackle Assad’s use of chemical weapons and hasten the defeat of ISIS.

He added: ‘President Trump has had highly successful visits to France, Germany, Japan, China, and other countries. It is absolutely right that we should welcome him here, and it is time for Labour to end their Spartist agitations.

Johnson’s comments come after Tillerson said he hopes to visit the controversial new US embassy when he visits London this week

The Foreign Secretary’s comments come after Tillerson said he hopes to visit the controversial new US embassy when he visits London this week.

The State Department said it had not been decided whether he would formally open the building.

Mr Trump cancelled a trip to London to open the embassy scheduled for next month, saying he did not want to endorse a bad deal agreed by the Obama administration to sell the old one for ‘peanuts.’

Speaking to reporters while flying back to Washington from a trip to the North American west coast on Wednesday, Tillerson did not respond when asked if he would formally open the controversial building, but said he hoped to go there.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a news briefing on Thursday no ‘ribbon-cutting ceremony’ by Tillerson was currently scheduled during his January 21-23 London visit before the World Economic forum in Davos.

While the deal on the sale of the old embassy site was concluded under President Barack Obama, the decision to move from Grosvenor Square in up-market Mayfair to the south bank of the Thames was agreed in 2008 under Republican President George W. Bush.

Nauert said the new embassy opened this week and the bulk of staff had moved from the old building. 

The cancellation of Trump’s trip was a further blow to relations between Britain and the United States, for long the closest of allies. More than a year into his presidency, Trump has yet to visit London, with many Britons vowing to protest against a man they see as crude, volatile and opposed to their values on a range of issues.

Tillerson rejected the suggestion that Trump might see Britain as less useful now that it was embroiled in Brexit and other political issues.

‘No, not at all,’ he said. ‘I mean, we still have the special relationship with the British people. As you know, President Trump was supportive of the UK’s exit from the EU. He still thinks that was the right decision for them.

‘Britain needs to focus on those Brexit negotiations right now, which is really important to them, and I think the president realizes that’s where Prime Minister May really needs to focus her attention.’ 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk