By Aislinn Laing and Marissa Davison
CHARLBURY, England (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s working holiday in Britain was met with dismay by some locals on Tuesday, who gathered to register their disapproval of both his politics and the turmoil he has brought to their quiet corner of the English countryside.
Vance has mixed work with leisure while in Britain, staying first with foreign minister David Lammy at the Chevening estate in Kent – where the two held a formal bilateral meeting after a spot of fishing – before moving on to the hamlet of Dean in Oxfordshire, in the picturesque Cotswolds.
On Tuesday, several dozen people, including activists from the Stop Trump Coalition, gathered in the nearby town of Charlbury to stage what they called a “Not Welcome Party”. They posed with cake and signs including pro-Palestinian slogans and messages saying “Go Home.” A van showing an unflattering manipulated image of a bald Vance drove around Charlbury.
“We want to show our feelings, hopefully some of it will get through to Vance and the American press and to Ukraine, so people know what we stand for,” said Brian Murray, 65, a retired tour guide.
“The fact he is in our backyard gives us a great opportunity to have our voices heard.”
Vance will meet on Tuesday evening with Robert Jenrick, a source in the opposition Conservative Party said. Jenrick was runner-up in the Conservative leadership contest last year, and is widely considered next in line for the job if it becomes available.
The Telegraph newspaper said Vance would also meet Nigel Farage, the leader of the right-wing Reform UK party.
Vance has developed a warm friendship with Labour’s Lammy, officials said, with the two bonding over their difficult childhoods and shared Christian faith.
Long a destination of the British elite – former British Prime Minister David Cameron lives in Dean – the Cotswolds is also becoming increasingly popular with wealthy Americans, some of whom moved to the region following the election win of President Donald Trump last year. TV personality Ellen DeGeneres has cited the election result as the reason behind her full-time relocation to the area.
Around Charlbury, motorcades roared along the narrow country lanes and cordons blocked off roads to Dean, rendering it inaccessible.
While Tuesday’s protest was unlikely to disrupt the vice president’s trip, for some locals, Vance’s politics and the disruption were too much to swallow.
“It’s a massive intrusion and it’s not just the fact our lives are disrupted but it’s who he is,” said Jonathan Mazower, the head of communications for NGO Survival International, who owns one of Dean’s 15 homes.
“I feel and many others feel we can’t allow someone like that to come into our village and not say something publicly against it.”
(Reporting by Aislinn Laing, Toby Melville and Marissa Davison; Editing by William James and Rosalba O’Brien)
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