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King Charles III is “being kept fully informed of developments” after a shooting incident at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Buckingham Palace has said.
“A number of discussions will be taking place throughout the day to discuss with US colleagues and our respective teams to what degree the events of Saturday evening may or may not impact on the operational planning for the visit,” it said in a statement ahead of his trip to the US on Monday.
The King is “greatly relieved” to hear that President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania “and all guests have been unharmed”, it added.
A government minister said earlier that the King’s state visit would have “appropriate security in place in relation to the risk”.
Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme the government and Buckingham Palace had been in “close co-operation” with US officials before the trip.
“Further discussions will be taking place today ahead of next week,” he said the morning after the incident.
Speaking later on the same programme, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said it was “vital” to ensure the King was properly protected and urged US and UK teams to review the monarch’s security overnight.
He said security arrangements on such visits were ordinarily very tight but they should be reviewed afresh “to make sure there are no loopholes at all”.
But Philp said the trip should “absolutely go ahead” as violence should not be allowed to stop diplomatic relations and politics from continuing as normal.
Trump later told reporters that one Secret Service agent was shot at very close range, but was saved by his bullet-proof vest.
The Secret Service, which protects the president and other key officials, confirmed no one else had been injured and said one person had been taken into custody.
Sir Keir Starmer wrote on X that he was shocked by the incident said it was a relief everyone attending the event, including Trump and the first lady Melania, was safe.
“Any attack on democratic institutions or on the freedom of the press must be condemned in the strongest possible terms” the prime minister added.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey likewise condemned the “really shocking scenes”.
He wrote on X: “Political violence is wrong. We must all condemn this attack and be thankful no lives were lost.”
Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, said it was a relief that all attendees were safe.
“However much we disagree about politics, if violence is used we all lose,” he wrote on social media.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla will be hosted by the president on the four-day trip – the first UK state visit to the US since Elizabeth II’s in 2007.
The King is expected to address both houses of Congress, visit the 9/11 memorial in New York, and attend a wreath laying to honour fallen US and UK soldiers in Virginia.
Jones said he could not predict what the King would discuss, but that the government’s position on the islands was clear: “The Falklands is British territory and the only people that get to decide otherwise are the islanders themselves.”
Broadcaster and historian Jonathan Dimbleby meanwhile told the BBC the trip should be postponed because of the “uncertainty of the president” – whom he said had “systematically mocked” the UK.
“Sound judgement is to deploy that asset, that soft power, at the right time,” the King’s close friend told BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House. “I think this is not the right time.”
“The problem is the uncertainty of the president… he will be very effusive about the King, the Royal Family, as he always is, one day. Next day, he rubbishes the prime minister, he goes back again into the feebleness, as he sees it, of the British Navy.”
