Donald Trump was spotted in Battersea hours after cancelling a UK visit on Friday – albeit in waxwork form.
Madame Tussauds transported its model of Trump four-and-a-half miles from its Marylebone site to the new US Embassy, in Nine Elms, on Friday.
The US president branded the embassy “off location” in a Tweet explaining his cancelled UK visit which was due to take place next month.
Staff from the Embassy, joined by construction workers, crowded around the model and posed for selfies.
Marsha De Cordova, Labour MP for Battersea, claimed Mr Trump cancelled his visit because he is “scared” of peaceful demonstrators opposing his views.
She said: “We welcome the fact that Donald Trump isn’t coming to London next month and coming to Battersea to open the embassy.”
Ms De Cordova said his tweet blaming his predecessor Barack Obama for the embassy move was “pretty inaccurate”.
She added: “Trying to diss Battersea clearly indicates he’s never been here and doesn’t know anything about my constituency.
“We are 15 minutes away from the heart of Britain’s democracy – the Houses of Parliament and Westminster.”
Claire Treacy, from Madame Tussauds, said transporting the model Trump was not easy, though only the figure’s head and hands were made from heavyweight wax.
She added: “We’re all about famous fun at Madame Tussauds London and we’ve got such a great figure in our Trump.
“Mr Trump is always welcome to come and visit his figure here in the UK.”
The cancelled visit attracted criticism from people near the Nine Elms site.
Rachael Basak, 34 from South East London, said she was glad Trump had called off the trip.
“His values do not reconcile with London values- we’re diverse, we recognise and value everybody irrespective of where they are from,” she said.
Mark Wright, 29, also from South East London said Trump’s tweet was “a load of rubbish”.
He said: “Give it another five years. When it’s developed, you’ll see that it’s a prime location rather than an ‘off location’.
“I think it’s important that we take on the public’s opinion that we don’t think he should be coming over but we also have to be mindful of the UK/US relationship because that’s going to be vital post-Brexit.”