Vice president JD Vance says that Britain has been “failed by its leadership” as the prepares to welcome its seventh prime minister in a decade.
He expressed concerns about the country’s political structure after Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation on 22 June and the possibility of former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham replacing him.
“What I see is six prime ministers in the last few years,” he told The Sunday Times. “What that says to me is that something is very broken about British politics and that people are really crying out for significant structural change.”
Mr Vance said that the UK has “been failed by its leadership for a long time” and “can do a lot more than its currently doing”. He hoped that “whoever the prime minister is figures out how to get Britain back on track”.
He added: “I hope that Andy Burnham — and if not Andy Burnham, somebody else — is able to deliver it. Because Britain is such a beautiful country, such an amazing place.”
While he admitted he doesn’t “know a lot” about the Manchester politician, he added: “Obviously, Britain is one of our closest and most important allies. So whoever is the prime minister, we’re going to work with them and work with them as successfully as we can.”
Nominations for Sir Keir’s successor are due to open on 9 July but Mr Burnham is widely considered a certainty to win.
Speaking ahead of the 250th anniversary of American independence, Mr Vance reiterated the importance of UK’s relationship with the US and said he has a “special affection” for the country.
“If I’m being honest, I think, as much as I care about it for reasons of mutual interest — and American alliances — I also just care about it because Britain feels more culturally familiar to me than any country on Earth, aside from my own,” he explained.
His comments come after months of tensions between the US and Europe over a series of disagreements from President Donald Trump’s bid to acquire Greenland to the US-Israeli war on Iran and a perceived lack of Nato support in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Last year, the vice president made controversial comments at the Munich Security Conference accusing Europe of opening the “floodgates” to migrants and waded into the furore surrounding the death of Henry Nowak by saying that he had died “he same way a civilisation dies: abandoned and handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him”.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio had seconded those remarks by accusing Britain of “two-tier policing”.
“Our politics should bring people together even in the most terrible of circumstances. That is who we are as a country,” a statement by Downing Street read in the aftermath of the comments.
Mr Vance tried to explain those comments, saying: “To the extent that the president or I, or secretary Rubio, are going into European institutions and encouraging people to be better, it comes from a perspective of love and admiration. Even though sometimes what we say is provocative.”
