Britain has been 'failed by its leadership' admits JD Vance in direct message to Andy Burnham

Britain is amazing but has been failed by its leadership, JD Vance has said, in a major intervention on the 250th anniversary of American independence.

The US Vice President spoke out on his feelings for the UK in a wide-ranging July 4 interview - in which he also outlined his hopes for Andy Burnham.

"I have a special affection for Britain," Mr Vance told The Times.

"If I'm being honest, I think, as much as I care about it for reasons of mutual interest - and American alliances - I also just care about it because Britain feels more culturally familiar to me than any country on Earth, aside from my own."

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In his new book, "Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith", the Vice President said he once felt "the scale of time" bearing down on him when he once climbed the 700-year-old walls of Caernarfon Castle.

The fortress was "already hundreds of years old when English settlers first landed in the United States," he pointed out.

That language mirrored the words of Donald Trump both in his July 3 "America 250" speech, and his address when he received King Charles III at the White House in April.

"In America, we speak English, because that is the language of our founding," Mr Trump said on the eve of the anniversary.

"For a thousand years, that has been the language of freedom."

On the White House lawn, he told the King how "the American patriots who pledged their lives to independence in 1776 were the heirs to this majestic inheritance, their veins ran with Anglo-Saxon courage, their hearts beat with an English faith in standing firm for what is right, good and true".

But last night, looking forward to the future of Britain, Mr Vance's words were less glowing.

Again, mirroring his boss, the Vice President said he did "not know a lot about Andy Burnham", but pledged to work with the next Prime Minister "as successfully as we can".

However, he delivered a stark assessment of Britain's reputation from abroad.

"What I see is six prime ministers in the last few years," he said. "What that says to me is that something is very broken about British politics and that people are really crying out for significant structural change," he says.

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"I hope that Andy Burnham - and if not Andy Burnham, somebody else - is able to deliver it.

"Britain is such a beautiful country, such an amazing place," he added, describing it as having "the most amazing people in the world" outside the US.

But the UK has "been failed by its leadership for a long time" and "can do a lot more than it's currently doing", he added.

He added that whoever the next Prime Minister may be, he hopes he "figures out how to get Britain back on track".

Mr Vance has made a number of high-profile interventions in British politics across his one-and-a-half years as Vice President.

Most recently, he warned how mass migration had led to the murder of Henry Nowak.

"Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit," he said.

"His murder is as tragic as it is enraging. He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it."

David Lammy, who shares an unlikely friendship with the Vice President, then gave him a dressing down in a "robust" phone call.

But the Justice Secretary claimed his death had "nothing to do with mass migration".

"This young man (Digwa) was a Brit," he told Sky News. "Let’s be... clear about that. I said: 'Look, Mr Vice-President, you’re wrong about this,' and it’s also the case that actually murder is coming down in the United Kingdom. So, we had an agreeable conversation, but we disagree."

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