UK foreign minister faces fine after JD Vance fishing trip licence error

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's foreign minister David Lammy could be on the hook for a 2,500 pounds ($3,394) fine following his fishing trip last week with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, after admitting he didn't have the required licence.

Vance and Lammy were pictured by invited media as they fished in the lake at the foreign minister's Chevening country residence in southeast England before a bilateral meeting as part of the vice president's working holiday to Britain.

The vice president later joked on camera that the only strain on the U.S.-British special relationship was that while his three children had caught fish, the British foreign minister had not.

All anglers are required by law to have a valid rod licence while they are fishing, regardless of whether they catch anything and whether they are on private land. Breaches can be punished with a fine of up to 2,500 pounds ($3,394).

Lammy's office on Wednesday said he had not purchased the licence before the trip and had since sought to rectify the mistake.

"The Foreign Secretary has written to the Environment Agency over an administrative oversight that meant the appropriate licences had not been acquired for fishing on a private lake as part of a diplomatic engagement at Chevening House last week," a spokesperson for Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement.

"As soon as the Foreign Secretary was made aware of the administrative error, he successfully purchased the relevant rod fishing licences."

The spokesperson had no immediate comment on whether a licence had been purchased for Vance too.

Vance is in England with his wife Usha and their children, who are spending this week in the hamlet of Dean in the picturesque Cotswolds, following their stay at Chevening.

($1 = 0.7367 pounds)

(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; editing by William James and Alexandra Hudson)