Cabinet minister Darren Jones says he has “every confidence” that Lord Peter Mandelson's appointment as UK ambassador to the US will be approved by Donald Trump's team. There were reports in a number of newspapers on Sunday that the Trump administration could be considering not granting approval to Lord Mandelson's new position. The chief secretary to the Treasury also distances the government from comments made by Sir Sadiq Khan where the Mayor of London warned over 'resurgent fascism' ahead of Trump’s inauguration. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Peter Mandelson is a serious appointment by this government to be our next ambassador
00:03to the United States. He will do a brilliant job bringing a huge amount of experience in relation
00:07not just to diplomatic efforts but trade where we know that the Trump administration
00:12wishes to work with us on the British government to improve and deepen our
00:15trade links between the UK and the United States. I think that he'll be doing a great
00:19job helping us to do that over the months ahead. I have every confidence that President Trump and
00:23his administration will see the importance of Peter Mandelson's role as ambassador to the
00:28United States and the value that he'll be able to add in that post. Look I think there are
00:32opportunities here for the UK and the United States to improve and deepen our trading
00:36relationship. We already do that significantly but there's much more that can be done not least in
00:41technology and financial services and science and research. I think we start from a different
00:47position than perhaps other countries that President Trump elects is worried about and
00:51we definitely focus on the opportunities for deepening our relationship in the future.
00:54Look Sadiq Khan is the mayor of London. He's allowed to say what he thinks but it's certainly
00:59not the position of this government. President Trump elect secured a historic victory at the
01:05election in November in the United States. He has a mandate to lead and we will look forward
01:09to working with him and his administration in the years ahead.