Boris Johnson to meet Donald Trump's national security adviser amid claims UK spied on president
Boris Johnson is to meet Donald Trump's national security adviser in Washington DC on Tuesday to attempt to draw a line under the diplomatic row sparked by claims Britain spied on the president, it is understood.
The British Foreign Secretary will meet HR McMaster as part of a three-day visit in which he will also hold talks with congressional leaders and senior members of Mr Trump's team, including chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior adviser Stephen Miller.
Suggestions that he would raise the spat sparked by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who repeated allegations that UK eavesdropping agency GCHQ spied on Mr Trump for Barack Obama, have been played down.
Officials are believed to be satisfied by reassurances from Mr Spicer and White House officials that the US will not repeat the allegations, which were described by GCHQ as "utterly ridiculous", in a rare public intervention.
The legal analyst who first made the claims about GCHQ, Andrew Napolitano, has been pulled from the Fox News channel after America's National Security Agency (NSA) and FBI flatly denied Mr Trump's allegation that he was bugged.
During his visit, Mr Johnson will also attempt to make further steps towards a UK-US free trade deal after Brexit, with Prime Minister Theresa May committed to triggering Article 50 on March 29 to begin the two-year exit process.
He will also meet US secretary of state Rex Tillerson on Wednesday and take part in a meeting of more than 60 countries to discuss efforts to defeat Islamic State (IS) by the counter-Daesh coalition.
He will travel to New York City on Thursday and chair a UN Security Council meeting on security in Somalia, famine and South Sudan.
The British Foreign Secretary will also host a UN event on female empowerment around the world, aimed at giving women better access to schools, jobs and democracy.
On Monday, NSA director Admiral Mike Rogers insisted his organisation did not ask GCHQ to spy on the candidate during his campaign.
Asked if President Trump making "baseless" claims against British security services damaged the close relationship between the two nations, Admiral Rogers said: "I think it clearly frustrates a key ally of ours."
When pressed at US congressional hearings whether the incident would have a bad impact on security ties between the US and Britain, he said: "I believe that the relationship is strong enough... this is something we will be able to deal with."
FBI director James Comey also denied the suggestion made by Mr Trump in a tweet earlier this month that he had been bugged by Mr Obama.
At the hearings, Mr Comey said: "With respect to the president's tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets and we have looked carefully inside the FBI; the Department of Justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the Department of Justice in all its components.
"The department has no information that supports those tweets."
