Ed Miliband's appointment as UK foreign secretary under new prime minister Andy Burnham has provoked anger in the Trump administration, with sources close to the White House warning that Donald Trump has not forgotten years of scathing remarks the former Labour leader has made about him. Allies say Miliband, who previously called Trump "a racist, misogynistic, self-confessed groper" and accused him of "lowering the bar for idiocy", now faces "serious diplomatic repair" to restore relations, at a sensitive moment for UK-US ties.

The two men have clashed publicly for over a decade, including over net zero policy, North Sea oil and gas drilling, and Trump's approach to democracy and Russia, with one White House-linked consultant saying the appointment is "going down like a lead balloon". Further US anger stems from Miliband's time as Labour leader, when he withdrew support for bombing Syria in 2013, a move Boris Johnson claimed emboldened Vladimir Putin's 2014 invasion of Crimea. Despite the friction, Miliband is reportedly planning to refocus the Foreign Office on climate goals and restore aid spending to 0.7% of GDP, which was cut under Sir Keir Starmer.