The Prime Minister has said the world has an "opportunity" to focus on ending the Iran war and easing the cost of living, after Donald Trump's Republican Party suffered a series of defeats in the US midterm elections.
The Democrats won control of the Senate and House of Representatives, taking seats in many former Republican strongholds, including Texas, Kansas, South Carolina, Ohio, Maine and Iowa. The elections to Congress were widely seen as a referendum on Mr Trump, who has been described as a "failed lame duck president".
Reaction at the Commonwealth Summit
Mr Burnham was asked for his reaction as he attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua. On whether the blow to Mr Trump could make the president more unpredictable, he told reporters: "President Trump has accepted the results, and I feel the world has an opportunity now to unite around the issue that is affecting us all, and that's the cost of living."
"That has been the issue that I have put front and centre in my first three months in Downing Street, and we've made moves. But I can't get people's cost of living pressures down until the conflict in the Middle East is resolved. The conflict in Ukraine started by Russia."
Focus on Cost of Living and De-escalation
Pressed on whether he believed the results were part of a global pattern of decline for the popular right, the Prime Minister said: "I think people want to see the world coming together and focusing on the things that matter to people, and that's what the voters, in my view, are saying in the United States."
He added that he had been "working hard as Prime Minister to bring a new approach, a new approach in the Middle East, and the Foreign Secretary set that out," along with a new approach to Europe and the Commonwealth.
Mr Burnham also said the UK Government would be pushing for de-escalation in the Iran conflict. "I'll be working for de-escalation to make it very clear. You know, we want to see a resolution, the Strait of Hormuz fully opened again. That's what we will be working towards."
