Andy Burnham has said he will be “very upfront” with Donald Trump when he becomes prime minister and will be willing to disagree with the US President whilst still “respecting the office”. The Prime Minister-in-waiting spoke about how he would approach the strained transatlantic relationship with the unpredictable US president, who recently described him as “extremely liberal” and “mayor of a town”.
Burnham's Strategy: Meet Trump Where He's At
Mr Burnham, who became MP for Makerfield in June, said he is ready to use his “personality” to be upfront with the President and “meet him where he's at”. His comments come as Britain's 'special relationship' with the USA has been under strain for some time now, fuelled in part by Sir Keir Starmer refusing to join the Iran war that was launched by the US and Israel in February - with Donald Trump claiming he was 'not happy' with the UK.
Sir Keir sought to pursue a conciliatory approach with the President and initially even drew praise for his handling of Mr Trump, but their relationship deteriorated over the Iran conflict. As the former Greater Manchester Mayor is set to become the new Prime Minister, the American president described Mr Burnham as an ‘extremely liberal’ politician and dismissed him as the ‘mayor of a town’.
Burnham's Response to Trump's Insult
In new comments about how Mr Burnham is planning on dealing with Trump, he said he plans to “meet him where he's at”. He told Gary Lineker for Goalhanger: “Maybe in a similar way to the way I’ve just described, I’ll just meet him where he's at. And you know, I like to think I’ve got some personality myself and I’ll just, you know, I’ll deal with him very upfront in the same way. I think he likes people to deal with him. He described Manchester as some town when he was referring to my position. And I might have to, you know what Mancs are like, Gary, that won’t have gone down fantastically well in the city I used to represent.”
He added: “But yeah, you know, it’s about being yourself, isn’t it? It’s about respecting the office, the relationship, the UK-US relationship. But, you know, where you disagree, do it, but do it in a way that is kind of meeting him where he’s at.”
What Did Trump Say About Burnham?
In June Donald Trump described Andy Burnham as “extremely liberal”, suggesting he “probably won't open up the North Sea” for oil exploration. In his first public remarks about the prospective British prime minister, the US president referred to him as “the mayor of a town”. Trump also reiterated his frustration at the UK's handling of the Iran conflict, adding that he believed Sir Keir Starmer had “now gone”.
When quizzed at the White House about his knowledge of Mr Burnham, the president said: “I don't know, I think I see that he was, I guess, the mayor of a town. I hear he's extremely liberal, extremely, so that means he probably won't open up the North Sea. I gave Keir Starmer some pretty good advice. I said open up the North Sea, go to Aberdeen, which was the hottest city of the whole continent. It was the oil city of Europe, and they closed everything. It was terrible. I couldn't believe it. The North Sea is loaded. I have had every oil company come to see me, 'Sir, could you give us access to the UK? We would do anything to drill in the North Sea'. The amazing thing is they buy their oil from Norway, which gets the oil from the North Sea. Think of it, and they pay a big premium. Norway's got now two trillion dollars in the bank, and the UK is dying, so they should open up the North Sea, and it's an easy one, and a lot of good things are going to happen. It's among the greatest deals in the world.”
