It was supposed to be the crowning glory of British diplomacy, brandished by Keir Starmer as the key to unlocking advantages for the UK as a tariff-obsessed president piled levies onto Europe’s stuttering economics. 

Donald Trump’s accession has affected everything from steel and whisky imports to a quest for large-scale technology deals, forging major transatlantic deals on AI, science research and development, and hassle-free location status for talent.

When Starmer took a letter personally signed by King Charles to the White House in February to invite Trump to an unheralded second state visit to Britain, he could not have imagined that by the time the visit came around, the backdrop would be the disastrous exit of Lord Mandelson on the back of embarrassing revelations about his dealings with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

As UK Ambassador to Washington, Mandelson was the very seasoned political and international operator he had appointed in Washington to ensure that the road to a crucial meeting was a smooth one.

The uphill task now, as one senior figure involved in the visit planning puts it, is to “remove the shadow of Peter as........

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