JD Vance love-bombs UK on visit with David Lammy

LONDON — U.S. Vice President JD Vance showered the U.K. with praise ahead of an audience with Foreign Secretary David Lammy, in a marked turn away from his previous rhetoric.

Vance told the media “I really love this country” ahead of a meeting hosted at Chevening, the foreign secretary’s country house in Kent. 

He called Lammy a “good friend,” adding: “I really love this country and in particular, having never been to this beautiful house before and seeing the surrounding area, I’ll just say that the people who built it, the people who sustained it, I think really love the human spirit.”

The outspoken vice president even resisted the chance to criticize laws governing freedom of speech and belief in the U.K., of which he has been damning in the past.

He acknowledged he had “raised some criticism, concerns about our friends on this side of the Atlantic” but specified that “many of the things that I worry most about were happening in the United States from 2020 to 2024.”

“I just don’t want other countries to follow us down what I think was a very dark path under the Biden administration,” Vance said, insisting that his concerns about free speech are focused on America.

The two men are expected to discuss the situation in Gaza following the decision by Benjamin Netanyahu to fully occupy the Gaza strip, which has been condemned by world leaders including Keir Starmer.

Vance told reporters the U.S. government had been in “constant negotiations and conversations, even the last 24 hours, about how to get more aid into Gaza, about how to solve that humanitarian problem, and also how to get Hamas to a position where they can’t continue to threaten the citizens and the civilians of Israel.”

He conceded that “there’s a lot of work to do there” and repeated his belief that the U.K. and the U.S. may have “disagreements about how exactly to accomplish those common objectives” after Starmer said he intends to recognize Palestinian statehood if Israel does not change tack.

Vance and his family are due to stay at Chevening for the weekend ahead of a longer vacation in the U.K. taking in the Cotswolds.

Lammy has previously said he bonded with Vance over their faith and “dysfunctional” upbringings.

In March, as their transatlantic bromance was burgeoning, they took mass together at the vice president’s residence in Washington when he hosted the Lammy family.