Trump’s visit couldn’t come at a worse time – for Boris and for Nato

In the next few days, on 3 and 4 December, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will host a grand international conference of 29 North American and European nations to mark the 70th anniversary of the foundation of Nato — the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which, led by the United States, kept the peace during the fraught years of Cold War confrontation with the Soviet Union. We are told that the Queen will give a reception in honour of the heads of state and government and that Donald Trump has accepted the invitation.

Just over a week later, the British general election takes place. Intrinsically the two events are quite unconnected. In reality they are bound together by the common menace of the President of the United States, who bobs beneath them like an untethered floating mine.

It is hard to think of an international conference more ill-timed than Nato’s celebration, slap-bang at the culmination of its host country’s election campaign.