King’s visit to US set to go ahead next month despite half of Brits wanting Charles to cancel his trip in wake of Donald Trump’s blasts at UK over Iran

King Charles’ trip to the US is set to go ahead next month despite half of Britons wanting it to be cancelled in the wake of Donald Trump’s recent blasts at the UK.

As part of his first state visit to America, the King is expected to attend a White House dinner in Washington DC and also travel to New York.

The timing of the visit has yet to be confirmed but it has been reported the King will address the US Congress during the last week of April.

His trip will come ahead of America’s 250th anniversary and follows Mr Trump’s historic second state visit to Britain in September last year.

There had been calls for the King to postpone his trip across the Atlantic while the US is engaged in a war with Iran.

Mr Trump on Thursday denied that tensions with Britain over the Middle East conflict would affect the King’s visit.

Answering media questions at a Cabinet meeting, the US President said: ‘He’s going to be here very soon, as you know, we’re going have a state dinner.

‘It’s going be great,’ he added. ‘He’s a friend of mine.’

Senior Government sources also said there was no suggestion the King’s visit was being delayed, despite it having yet to be formally announced.

But a new YouGov poll revealed a growing wish among Britons for the King’s trip to be cancelled completely.

The survey, conducted on Wednesday, showed 49 per cent are opposed to the visit going ahead, compared to just 33 per cent who want it to happen.

A previous poll from two weeks ago showed 46 per cent wanted the King’s trip to be cancelled, compared to 36 per cent who thought it should go ahead.

In the past fortnight, Mr Trump has continued his criticism of NATO allies – including Britain – for failing to assist in the US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

The US President has swiped that Sir Keir Starmer is ‘no Winston Churchill’ while fuming at the Prime Minister’s reluctance to allow America to use British bases to launch attacks on Tehran.

On Thursday, Mr Trump delivered another blast at the UK, saying Sir Keir made ‘a big mistake’ and denigrating UK warships as ‘toys’.

‘We had the UK say that ‘we’ll send’ – this is three weeks ago – ‘we’ll send our aircraft carriers’, which aren’t the best aircraft carriers, by the way. They’re toys compared to what we have,’ the US President said.

‘But ‘we’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over’. I said ‘oh that’s wonderful, thank you very much. Don’t bother. We don’t need it’.’

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: ‘Trump is yet again insulting our brave Armed Forces just because we refuse to be dragged into his illegal war.

‘The ‘toys’ he refers to are called HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

‘What more will it take for Keir Starmer to call off the King’s state visit to the US?’

The latest YouGov poll showed that Green voters are the most opposed to the King’s visit (70 per cent), with Liberal Democrats (65 per cent) and Labour voters (62 per cent) not far behind.

Only Reform UK voters are firmly in favour (63 per cent) of the US state visit, while Tory voters are split 45-43 per cent on the subject.

The figures are not dissimilar to public sentiment when the circumstances were reversed last year.

Some 45 per cent of Britons thought it was wrong to invite Mr Trump for a state visit to the UK in September, with 30 per cent opposed.

YouGov surveyed 5,281 adults on 25 March.