Sir Keir Starmer will meet Donald Trump next week, No 10 has confirmed.
It could be the first meeting of a European leader with the new US president since he took office for his second term.
Asked about comments made by US vice-president JD Vance on free speech in the UK, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “There’s going to be a wide range of issues that we’ll be working with the new US administration on.
“The Prime Minister looks forward to meeting President Trump shortly to discuss how we can deepen the special relationship across trade, investment and security.”
He added: “The Prime Minister will travel to Washington DC next week.”
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Sir Keir plan to act as a bridge between Mr Trump and Europe on the Ukraine war is “not going to be easy”, Cabinet minister Jonathan Reynolds acknowledged.
The Prime Minister will join European leaders at an emergency summit called by Emmanuel Macron on Monday, as they consider how to respond to Mr Trump’s push for an end to the war in Ukraine.
He will then take the message from Europe to the US when he visits Mr Trump
The meeting on Monday will see Mr Macron and Sir Keir joined by leaders from Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark along with the presidents of the European Council and European Commission and the secretary general of Nato.
Sir Keir will tell European leaders the continent “must take on a greater role in Nato”, Downing Street has indicated.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman told reporters on Monday: “It’s clear that Europe must take on a greater role in Nato as we work with the United States to secure Ukraine’s future and face down the threats we face from Russia, and that’s why, as he said in his (Telegraph) op ed yesterday, Europe must step up to further meet the demands of its own security.
“That will be part of the clear message that he will be delivering in Paris today.
“It’s a number of things – it means increasing defence spending and taking on a greater role in Nato.”
He later added: “It also means being ready to play a leading role on security guarantees, as we’ve discussed before, in Ukraine, and that includes further supporting Ukraine’s military. It also means being ready to contribute to security guarantees by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary.
“As the PM also spelled out yesterday, the United States is going to remain critical on this, and the US security guarantee will be essential for lasting peace, because only the United States can deter (Vladimir) Putin from attacking again, and that will obviously be relevant to the Prime Minister’s discussions with President (Donald) Trump in the coming week and working with him and all of our G7 partners to help secure the future of Ukraine.”
