THE UK:David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, yesterday tried to quash the view that Britain would cool its relationship with the US in the wake of two speeches by government ministers close to the prime minister, Gordon Brown.
Mr Miliband insisted that there would be "no change" in the relationship after a second minister, Lord Malloch Brown, who was appointed to the foreign office earlier this month, suggested that Britain would not "be joined at the hip" to the US.
His comments followed an equally critical speech by the international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, in Washington, which was widely interpreted as a sign that relations with the US would change under Mr Brown.
Mr Miliband told the BBC's current affairs television programme Sunday AM: "Our commitment to work with the Americans in general and the Bush administration in particular is resolute." He said Britain wanted to be a "serious player" in the world. "You do that with the US, not against."
Liam Fox, the Conservative party's foreign affairs spokesman, told the Sunday Live programme that Mr Brown's government was giving "confusing signals".
Mr Brown's problem with US relations was a blip on a weekend which saw Labour regain the initiative in the polls, taking a seven-point lead over the Tories in a Sunday Telegraph poll. Labour was polling 40 per cent, the Conservatives were down to 33 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 19 per cent.
Labour's reversal of fortune in the polls fuelled interest in whether Mr Brown could call an early election, given that he has already told Ed Miliband, the cabinet office minister, to start working on the next general election manifesto.