Labour MP 'anxious' over King Charles's US State Visit: 'It's a high-wire act!'

Ben McCaffrey
Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:37:37 +0000

A Labour MP has expressed her anxieties regarding King Charles's State Visit this week.

Dame Emily Thornberry, Labour chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said she is not alone in feeling nervous ahead of the trip.

On Saturday, while President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington DC, gunshots echoed around the hall as panicked guests hit the floor and found cover. One federal officer was hit by a bullet, and has since been discharged from hospital.

The suspect of the attack, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, from Torrance, California, is due to appear in court today, where he is expected to be formally charged with assault of a federal officer and using a firearm during a crime of violence.

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Buckingham Palace has insisted the trip will "proceed as planned", while President Trump told CBS News that King Charles "will be very safe".

But the State Visit also comes on the backdrop of a fractious diplomatic relationship between the UK and the US.

Mr Trump has repeatedly hammered Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over a number of his policies, such as Net Zero, immigration and the US-Israeli offensive in Iran.

This is concerning to Dame Emily, who fears the "unpredictability" of the President could cause King Charles a headache and catch him off guard during the pivotal State Visit.

"I still remain anxious about this, and I don't think I'm really alone," she told the BBC.

"It is a really high-wire act, and the [US] president is so unpredictable, we just don't know what he's going to say."

Offering a caveat, she added that "if anybody can pull it off, it is the King", and that he is "up for the challenge".

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"There are a number of things that we're at loggerheads on here, whether it’s Nato, Ukraine, Greenland, Chagos, the Falklands, the things he's said about our armed forces, immigration, renewables, controlling social media."

The US President revealed last week that "everything" would be on the agenda with his "friend" King Charles.

Speaking to Reuters, the US President said Iran, Nato and the UK's digital services tax will be among the topics the two will discuss when the monarch arrives.

"I'm going to talk about it. He is a friend of mine, and he is a great guy," he said.

The President then threatened to slap Britain with all-new tariffs if it did not drop its "cash grab" tax on American companies.

"We've been looking at it and we can meet that very easily by just putting a big tariff on the UK, so they better be careful," he told reporters in the Oval Office in yet another brutal blow for the PM.

"If they don’t drop the tax, we'll probably put a big tariff on the UK."

But, despite his apprehensions and concerns over the UK's governance, Mr Trump has repeatedly insisted any ongoing tensions between himself and Sir Keir would not overshadow the monarch's trip.