US has 'no plans' to recognise Palestinian statehood, JD Vance says on visit to UK

US Vice President JD Vance said on Friday that Washington has "no plans" to recognise a Palestinian as he met UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy in Kent.

Taking questions from reporters before their talks, Vance addressed the UK decision to recognise Palestinian statehood in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza, saying he wasn’t sure what such recognition would even mean, "given the lack of a functional government there."

"If it was easy to bring peace to that region of the world, it would have been done already," he said.

The meeting comes amid debates between Washington and London about the best way to end the wars between Russia and Ukraine, as well as Israel and Hamas.

It's also taking place as the UK tries to come to favourable terms for steel and aluminium exports to the US and the two sides work out details of a broader trade deal announced at the end of June.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he hoped to meet with US President Donald Trump next week, comments that came a day before Trump's deadline for Moscow to show progress in ending the three-year war in Ukraine.

While Trump has focused on bilateral talks with Putin, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other European leaders have stressed that Ukraine must be part of any negotiations on ending the war.

The US and Britain, which have historically close ties known as "the special relationship," have also disagreed on their approach to ending the war in Gaza.

Vance and Lammy come from opposite ends of the political spectrum, but have made a personal connection through their hardscrabble childhoods and Christian faith.

While Lammy is a member of the left-leaning Labour Party and Vance is a conservative Republican who supports Trump's "America First" agenda, the two men have bonded in recent months.

Lammy told the Guardian newspaper that the two men can relate over their "dysfunctional" working class childhoods and that he considers Vance a "friend."

Lammy attended a Catholic Mass at the Vance home in Washington earlier this year and the two men met again at the US Embassy in Rome when he and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner attended the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV in May.

"I had this great sense that JD completely relates to me and he completely relates to Angela," Lammy told the Guardian newspaper. "So it was a wonderful hour and a half."

Asked whether Trump had been given a heads up on Israel’s announced intention to occupy Gaza City, Vance said he wouldn't go into such conversations.