PHILIP HAMMOND will make diplomatic history today when he jets into Havana, becoming the first British secretary of state to visit Cuba in more than 40 years.

Junior Foreign Office ministers were dispatched to the island under the last Labour government in 2005 and more recently during the Con-Dem coalition in October 2014.

But the last senior minister to visit the socialist country was Peter Shore, trade secretary in Harold Wilson’s Labour government, in 1975.

Mr Hammond’s trip is part of a six-day tour of Latin America, which also includes stops in Colombia and Mexico.

He is likely to be given a “very warm” welcome by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla or even President Raul Castro, according to Cuba Solidarity Campaign director Rob Miller.

Mr Miller said talks would centre on lifting US-imposed restrictions against British companies seeking to trade with Cuba.

British design company Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo was fined $140,000 (£96,000) earlier this year for taking part in a hotel construction project.

“A whole series of bilateral meetings have taken place over the last 10 or 15 years. Britain has never severed its diplomatic relations,” Mr Miller told the Morning Star.

“But the facts speak for themselves — British trade with Cuba is absolutely derisory, minuscule, pathetic.

“Until the British government takes real measures to protect British companies nothing will change.

“Despite our misgivings about Philip Hammond, British engagement with Cuba is welcome with the proviso that it’s backed up with legal, concrete measures to enhance British trade.”