The government has worked to ensure the “deep ties” linking the UK and the US will be “as strong as they have ever been” regardless of the outcome of the US election, the health secretary said.

Wes Streeting told LBC Radio: “The Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and others have worked hard to ensure that, whatever the outcome of the US presidential election, the deep ties that bind our two nations are as strong as never.

“I think this is particularly important in a world where we see war on the continent of Europe, in Ukraine, war in the Middle East, wider geopolitical risks and threats where the US and Britain have a shared history, but also a cause common in terms of the future we want to build, in the future of democracy.

“The American people will decide who their president is, and we will work with whoever they choose.”