Gordon Brown flies to Washington to meet George W. Bush on Sunday, aware that every nuance of his rhetoric and body language will be scrutinised in terms of its import for transatlantic ­relations.

The trip to Camp David is the first meeting between the two leaders since Mr Brown became prime minister last month. The two men “bumped into” each other in Washington earlier this year, in a carefully choreographed encounter shielded from media scrutiny. There will be no such escape from the cameras this time.