HE has the floppy hair and plummy voice for it, and now Boris Johnson has laid the strongest claim yet of any British Prime Minister to a genuine Love Actually moment.

Named after the scene in the drippy rom-com in which a British PM, played by Hugh Grant, stands up to his overbearing US counterpart, several UK premiers, including David Cameron, have wanted to do the same but come up woefully short.

Now along comes Mr Johnson and appears to nail it in the first take with his decision on Huawei. Safely cushioned by an 80-seat majority and still in the honeymoon phase of his premiership, the PM has given the okay to the Chinese company developing Britain’s 5G network.

The move came despite growls of displeasure from the White House, Congress, and members of Mr Johnson's own party over the company’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party. One Congressman compared opening the door to Huawei to allowing the KGB to run the phone system during the Cold War. Another representative accused Mr Johnson of "choosing the surveillance state over the special relationship".

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In responding, Mr Johnson hardly went the full Hugh Grant/Love Actually on the matter and declared: "A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend”. Instead, he limited the tech giant’s market share, promised to keep it away from sensitive areas, and do more to boost competition so that there were more players in the market. In addition, he called the US President to explain and reassure.

What Mr Johnson's response amounted to was an almighty “calm down, dears”, and understandably so. Even if you do harbour fears that the Chinese Communist Party might one day tip the wink to Huawei and tell it to pull the plug on the UK’s internet, or hack those fascinating exchanges between you and a friend over where to meet for lunch, it is too late. See that distant spot on the horizon, where you can just about make out hooves thundering through the dust? That’s the Huawei horse, which long ago ran from an about-to-be-bolted stable.

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The firm has been working in the UK telecoms sector for 17 years. Equipment has been installed. Safeguards are in place and can be boosted. Not one but two parliamentary committees were satisfied on that score. Moreover, it is safer to keep potential threats where you can keep an eye on them.

In general, anyone who thinks the only or greatest snooping threat comes from the Chinese might want to dip into the work of one Edward Snowden esquire. Big Brother is already watching.

On one level, Mr Johnson’s motives for going ahead with Huawei are purely practical. Ripping out the existing equipment would have been costly, not just financially but technologically as well. But there are other, political reasons why he might want to place some distance between himself and the US. Are we witnessing, at long last, a British PM prepared to pull back the curtain on the special relationship and expose it for the illusion it has become?

As a scholar of the PM who coined the term, Mr Johnson must have a clear-eyed view of the special relationship. Born of practical need in the midst of global war, it has blossomed and withered depending on the times and individuals. Crucially, it has always worked to the ultimate and greater benefit of America.

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When have the Americans ever “taken one for the team” to use a sporting phrase? The only time the White House has been denied it was by Harold Wilson over Vietnam. When Tony Blair took the opposite tack over a war the cost to the UK was horrific and continuing.

Even that nice Mr Obama was given to blowing hot and cold when it suited, unless you think the “back of the queue” threat on Brexit did Mr Cameron a favour.

As for the current US administration, let us face it: the only special relationships Donald Trump has are with his electoral base and the mirror.

Why it should be any different is a question only the most starry-eyed of international observers can say. Any government’s first duty is to its own people. After that, it is a question of give and take according to need and propriety.

Now that Mr Johnson has had his Love Actually moment, we might ponder the chances of him continuing with this reset relationship. There will be a price to pay for not unquestioningly doing the White House’s bidding over Huawei. It is just not yet clear what.

Over the coming weeks and months the PM’s in-tray contains two major tasks where America is concerned. The first is securing justice for Harry Dunn, the 19-year-old motorcyclist who died in a crash with a vehicle driven by the wife of a US diplomat. This will be difficult given she has left the UK and the US has refused to extradite her, but the Government cannot give up.

The second is framing US-UK trade deal. It is here Mr Johnson is most vulnerable to American pressure.

There is a certain irony in the fact it is Mr Johnson who finds himself tested just as the UK pivots away from the EU. As someone who was born in the US and stayed there for various periods, he might be expected to lean towards America. But then he lived in Brussels, too, and that hardly stopped him making the UK the first country to leave the EU.

It is rich, too, that it has taken one populist PM, Mr Johnson, to defy another, Mr Trump. Takes one to know one and all that.

If the price sought by America for a trade deal is a relaxation in regulations, Mr Johnson can be expected to roll over.

His Ministers are already preparing the ground with talk of divergence from trade rules and standards in any deal with the EU.

US negotiators could find themselves pushing at an open door, and all the pre-election promises of the NHS not being for sale will prove as worthless as a pledge written on the side of a bus.

As ever in his career, Mr Johnson can be expected to do what is best for him first, with everything else secondary. It is just his way, actually.