Lord David Cameron has said it was “entirely in line with precedent” for him to have dined with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago amid his push to shore up US support for Ukraine.
The Foreign Secretary refused to be drawn on the details of his discussion with the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, saying only that it covered a “range of important geopolitical subjects”.
Lord Cameron made a surprise visit to Mr Trump’s Florida resort on Monday ahead of flying to Washington DC to launch his latest appeal to Congress over a stalled multi-billion-dollar package of aid for Kyiv.
The funding faces an uphill battle in the House of Representatives amid opposition from hardline Republicans aligned with Mr Trump.
Lord Cameron, who has previously criticised the former president’s interventions as “protectionist, xenophobic (and) misogynistic”, played down his pit stop in Mar-a-Lago alongside British ambassador to the US, Karen Pierce.
At a press conference alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he said: “This was entirely in line with precedent of Government ministers meeting with opposition politicians in the run-up to elections.
“I remember when I was prime minister meeting Mitt Romney when he was a candidate. I remember Gordon Brown meeting Barack Obama when he was a candidate.
“I think Tony recently had a meeting with Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, in Munich.
“So these things are entirely proper, but it was a private meeting so I haven’t really got anything to add to your questions, but we discussed a range of important geopolitical subjects.”
He added later that they “discussed geopolitical issues like Israel and Gaza, like Ukraine, like the future of Nato”.
“Whoever I’m talking to, I tend to make the same points, which is that we’ve got to do everything we can, this year, to get Nato in its strongest possible shape for its 75th anniversary.
“And getting everyone up to 2%, having the new members joining – Sweden and Finland – having the strongest possible alliance, that’s the best thing we can do,” the Foreign Secretary said.
The Trump campaign was more forthcoming, claiming the talks covered “the upcoming US and UK elections, policy matters specific to Brexit, the need for Nato countries to meet their defence spending requirements, and ending the killing in Ukraine”.
“President Trump, Secretary Cameron and Ambassador Pierce also discussed their mutual admiration for the late Queen Elizabeth II,” it added.
European nations have concerns that the former president may change the course of US policy on the continent if he is returned to the White House.
Recalling an incident during his presidency, Mr Trump recently suggested that he had previously said he would “encourage” Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” in cases where Nato allies are “delinquent”.
Lord Cameron was among political figures to speak out against the remarks earlier this year, saying the suggestion was “not a sensible approach”.
It was not the first time the Foreign Secretary has criticised the presidential hopeful, who has been riding high in recent opinion polls ahead of the US election later this year.
In his memoir, For the Record, the former prime minister said “maverick businessman” Mr Trump had won the 2016 vote “despite (or even perhaps, depressingly, thanks to) his protectionist, xenophobic, misogynistic interventions.”
Lord Cameron is expected to meet Congressional leaders from across the aisle on Capitol Hill as he seeks to urge lawmakers across the Atlantic to approve “urgent” additional assistance for Ukraine.
These could include Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives who is trying to work out a compromise over aid for Kyiv, though it has not been confirmed whether the two will come face to face.
“I’ve got a range of meetings with senators and congressmen both sides of the aisle. I always do this with great trepidation. It’s not for foreign politicians to tell legislators in another country what to do,” he said in Washington.
“It’s just that I’m so passionate about the importance of defending Ukraine against this aggression, that I think it is absolutely in the interests of US security that Putin fails in his illegal invasion…
“So I’m here to offer my opinion, to meet with anyone who wants to talk to me about it, to make those arguments.”