In his Newscast interview, Lammy was also asked about the potential impact of Trump’s policies on UK trade.

He described Trump as “warm about the UK,” especially toward the Royal Family, and noted he “loves Scotland”.

But during the election campaign, he vowed to dramatically increase taxes, or tariffs, on foreign goods imported into the US.

Such a move could hit billions of pounds’ worth of British exports, including Scotch whisky, pharmaceutical products, and airplane parts.

Asked if the UK would seek a special trade arrangement so there were no extra tariffs on British exports to the US, Lammy said: “We will seek to ensure and to get across to the United States, and I believe that they would understand this, that hurting your closest allies cannot be in your medium or long-term interests.”

Lammy also said Trump was “correct” in his argument that Europe had fallen short on defence spending.

He called for a “clear” pledge from European governments to boosting military spending but could not say when the government would reach its target of spending 2.5% GDP on defence.

Lammy argued another state visit for Trump next year would be a “tall order” as they “take a while to organise”.

State visits are the highest level of diplomatic visit to the UK and traditionally involve a state banquet hosted by the monarch and a carriage parade along the Mall.

But Lammy said the government “generally want to be generous with our American friends”.

Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage, who spent US election night in Florida as Trump’s guest, said it would have been “impossible” for Lammy to “carry on” as foreign secretary if he had stuck by his previous comments.

But he warned that the “problems” in Lammy’s relationship with Trump would come from other issues, such as “giving away the Chagos Islands, where there’s a very important US naval base”.

Farage added he was “supremely confident that with the right negotiation, [the UK] can avoid” trade tariffs threatened by Trump, in an interview with BBC Wales.