During a meeting with David Lammy, JD Vance said the US president has been “very moved” by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but has “no plans” to recognise a Palestinian state
JD Vance said the US and UK have “disagreements” over their responses to the crisis in Gaza but share the same “common” goal to end the war as he met David Lammy to discuss the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The US vice president begun his UK holiday with a visit to the foreign secretary’s country retreat at Chevening in Kent.
Appearing alongside the foreign secretary on Friday, the vice president confirmed Washington had “no plans” to recognise Palestine, which Britain has pledged to do unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire.
Vance, who has previously accused the UK of retreating from democratic values, struck a more positive chord as he spoke of his “love” for the country during his trip to the Grade I-listed stately home.
The two men went carp fishing in a pond near the 17th-century house, and are understood to have caught some fish.
He heaped praise on his “good friend” the foreign secretary, and said Britain and the US should work together to “bring greater peace” to the world as the two countries “have a lot in common”.
However, he made clear that there were differences of opinion between the two administrations on how to address the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Asked by reporters at the top of a bilateral meeting with Lammy what he thought of the UK’s plans to recognise Palestine, Vance said: “Obviously, the United Kingdom is going to make its decision.
“We have no plans to recognise a Palestinian state. I don’t know what it would mean to really recognise a Palestinian state given the lack of functional government there.”
He said both sides wanted to “solve that problem” of the crisis in Gaza, but “may have some disagreements about how exactly to accomplish that goal, and we’ll talk about that today”.
Sitting alongside the US vice-president at the start of a bilateral meeting at Chevening House, the foreign secretary said: “Of course we will be discussing the developing situation in Gaza, which is a great concern, and of course the ongoing war in Ukraine, and the desire to see that come to an end.”
Despite coming from differing political backgrounds, Vance and Lammy are said to have developed a personal rapport, bonding over their difficult childhoods and Christian faith.
Vance visited Chevening while on holiday in the Cotswolds with his family, who joined him and the Foreign Secretary to go carp fishing at the countryside estate on Friday.
“Unfortunately, the one strain on the special relationship is that all of my kids caught fish, but the foreign secretary did not,” the vice-president said.
“It is great to be here, my wife and I love this section, this area of the UK and we were actually here a couple of years ago, so we love this country.
“Just on a personal note, I have to say that I really have become a good friend, and David has become a good friend of mine, and so it’s great to spend some time here with him… you’ve been a very, very gracious host to me and the whole family.”
Friday’s meeting comes at a time of persistent global uncertainty, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggesting an expansion of his country’s campaign in Gaza and Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly preparing to meet US President Donald Trump in the coming days..
Vance said the US government’s two goals are “very simple”, saying: “Number one, it’s we want to make it so that Hamas cannot attack innocent Israeli civilians ever again, and we think that has to come through the eradication of Hamas.
“Second, the president has been very moved by these terrible images of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, so we want to make sure that we solve that problem.
“I think all of us can work on how to solve that problem. Obviously, it’s not an easy problem to solve, or it would have already been dealt with, but we share, I think, that focus and that goal. We may have some disagreements about how exactly to accomplish that goal, and we’ll talk about that today.”
Asked about the criticism he has previously directed at the UK over issues like freedom of speech, he claimed his concerns related more widely to “the entire collective West”.
In February, Vance claimed that a “backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons” under threat, and attacked the use of laws to enforce buffer zones around abortion clinics.
“I think the entire collective West, the transatlantic relationship, our Nato allies, certainly the United States under the Biden administration, got a little too comfortable with censoring rather than engaging with a diverse array of opinions,” the vice president said.
“I just don’t want other countries to follow us down what I think is a very dark path under the Biden administration.”
Lammy said “commonalities and differences” in political debate were part of the “joy of living in a democracy like ours”.
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