By GB News (Politics) | Created at 2026-08-07 00:31:40 | Updated at 2026-08-07 05:02:49
4 hours ago
Reform UK has held talks with the Trump administration in Washington DC as the party prepares its bid to win the next General Election.
Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick was despatched to the US capital for a series of high-profile meetings on Thursday - including with Vice President JD Vance - to lay the groundwork for the potential future of the "special relationship".
Speaking exclusively to GB News during the visit, Mr Jenrick said Reform wanted to be ready for the next election - which could come "much sooner" than an expected 2029 date.
He said it was "very important" that UK-US relations were strong, given America remains Britain's "primary defence, security and trading partnership".
"Under a Reform Government - whilst we will obviously always put the interests of British people and our own country first - we want to maintain and deepen that relationship," he added.
Thursday was not the first time the Newark MP has met Mr Vance.
The pair met last summer - while Mr Jenrick was still the Tory Shadow Justice Secretary - in the Cotswolds for a barbecue.
Alongside those two were Cambridge academic James Orr, then-Tory MP Danny Kruger and former The Apprentice star Thomas Skinner.
All three men are now part of Reform UK - with Professor Orr, previously dubbed Mr Vance's "philosopher king", becoming the party's head of policy in April this year.
Mr Jenrick told GB News it was "all for the good that we have a deep relationship with [the Trump administration] and can speak as friends in a way that I just don't think Keir Starmer, or now Andy Burnham, is able to".
His visit to the States follows similar trips in recent weeks by both Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf.
"Senior members of the administration give time to us. I don't see them doing that to others," Mr Jenrick said.
The Treasury spokesman revealed to Britain's News Channel the lessons the UK could learn from across the pond.
Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick was despatched to the US capital for a series of high-profile meetings on Thursday - then spoke to GB News' Ben Leo
GB NEWS
On migration, Mr Jenrick said there was "a lot we can learn" from Donald Trump's approach.
"The Trump administration came in with a very clear plan as to how they would secure the southern border. We set out our plan this week where we've said that we would bring in the Armed Forces and... take back every single migrant who attempted to cross the Channel to France. Not a single one would step foot on British soil," he said.
And he added that it was "important to see" how quickly the US moved on to deporting illegal migrants.
"I think 3,000 illegal migrants are being removed from the United States every day at the moment," Mr Jenrick continued. "We've been very clear we want to see every single illegal out of the UK. That is that is millions of people."
The MP also confirmed he had visited the Pentagon for talks on defence - an area on which Reform has been accused of being too soft and too quiet.
Despite being home to former Reserves Minister Julian Brazier and Henry Jackson Society chief Alan Mendoza, the party does not yet have an official defence spokesman - though Mr Jenrick made a number of high-profile interventions on the topic to GB News.
"We will increase defense spending, and we want to work with the US because we want to bring back good jobs. I want to have re-industrialisation of communities across the United Kingdom with good defence jobs," he said.
Robert Jenrick met JD Vance, Pentagon and US Treasury officials in a bid to forge relationships with the US
GETTY
"That's really only going to happen if you have a Reform Government that puts British people first and ensures we actually make the savings elsewhere that we can plough into defence.
In the States, "it's basically a cross-party position that the taxpayer should not be paying forever for the security of the United Kingdom and Europe", he said.
"So we have to step up."
However, he refused to commit to more defence spending than Labour's stated goal, pledging that Reform would meet Britain's Nato commitment to spend three per cent of GDP on defence, then 3.5 per cent in the course of the next Parliament.
Mr Jenrick said he had raised the Chagos Islands in every meeting he held in DC.
"I hope this can be killed off," he said. "The attitude here is that Keir Starmer and the Labour Party bought [into] all this international human rights garbage.
"They were putting how they were perceived in international courts... above the security interests of the United Kingdom and of the United States.
'They want to see the UK back up the words that they've heard latterly from Keir Starmer - maybe from Andy Burnham in the months ahead - with actual action,' Mr Jenrick said
PA
"Let's see what happens. But I hope that the tide is turned on that."
Mr Jenrick - who would likely serve as Chancellor in a Reform Government - said the only way Britain would be able to step up on defence and more broadly would be to slash public spending and grow the economy.
"Almost uniquely in British politics, we've been very clear about how we will do that," he said.
"No benefits to people who aren't British citizens. No more foreign aid to rich countries. Scrap all the Net Zero subsidies. Get the millions of people who are currently choosing not to work, on benefits, back into the workplace.
"If you do that - a proper plan for fiscal responsibility - we'll be able to properly fund our defence and stand tall in the world.
"The message when you come to Washington is they don't want people just saying things. They've heard it all before.
"They want to see the UK back up the words that they've heard latterly from Keir Starmer - maybe from Andy Burnham in the months ahead - with actual action.
"With Reform, they can see that we mean business."
