David Lammy has spoken of his friendship with the US vice-president, JD Vance, as the pair can relate over their “dysfunctional” working-class childhoods.

In a series of interviews with the Guardian, conducted over several weeks, the foreign secretary opened up about a “wonderful hour and a half” spent with Vance over drinks at the US embassy in Italy in May alongside the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner.

Lammy said he had been to mass at Vance’s home and counted him as a “friend”, saying the vice-president “relates” to him over their shared background.

“I remember being at the inauguration of the new pope in Rome with Angela Rayner and JD Vance,” he