LABOUR frontbenchers are willing to meet Donald Trump when he visits the UK next month, shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said yesterday.

Thornberry repeated her claim that the US president is an “asteroid of awfulness”, and said she had “no problem” standing up to him on policy disagreements, but said she and her colleagues would accept an invitation to see him if received.

She told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: “The protocol normally is that a visiting leader will ask to see the opposition if they want to. If we get an invitation to see him, of course we will go and see him. I called him an asteroid of awfulness, that’s because that’s what he is.”

Thornberry also defended Labour’s relationship with America, saying: “I went to the United States a couple of months ago and I made a lot of good friends with people with whom we share values.

“We share values with the United States, we do not share values with Donald Trump. I’m happy to say that openly and I will say it to his face. In my view, when you have a bully like that, you stand up to them.”