Donald Trump has renewed his attack on Labour’s “terrible deal” to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, during his first meeting with Andy Burnham.
The US president again condemned the UK Government’s controversial agreement to relinquish control of the strategically important archipelago.
His comments came after his first face-to-face talks with the Prime Minister, held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Despite making his opposition to the Chagos agreement clear, Mr Trump adopted a warm tone towards the Prime Minister and described him as a “natural business person”.
He said Britain had “tremendous potential” and, in an apparent dig at Mr Burnham’s predecessor Keir Starmer, claimed the US-UK relationship was “more up” since his departure from Downing Street.
Mr Burnham said the pair had “established a good connection in our early discussions and we’ve taken that further today”.
Discussing the transatlantic alliance, he added: “This relationship matters so much to us and we’ll build on that relationship.”
Donald Trump has renewed his criticism of Labour’s “terrible deal” to surrender the Chagos Islands during his first meeting with Andy Burnham.
The meeting was Mr Burnham’s first in person with Mr Trump, despite his previous fierce criticism of the US president and his claim that UK politicians should be “ashamed” to engage with him.
In June, during Mr Burnham’s successful campaign to replace Sir Keir as Prime Minister after winning the Makerfield by-election, Mr Trump had described him as “extremely liberal”.
Asked what he knew about Mr Burnham at the time, the US president said: “I don’t know, I think I see that he was, I guess, the mayor of a town.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Mr Burnham was also questioned about his earlier social media criticism of Mr Trump.
He told reporters: “As I have said, politicians say things throughout their career, but now the important thing is to focus on the moment you are in, and I did say to the president in our first phone call, I said, ‘Mr President, Manchester isn’t some town’, I said, ‘This is Manchester’.”
He added: “And so yes, the right thing to do is to have a laugh about it, isn’t it, and move beyond it.”
During Mr Trump’s first term as US president, Mr Burnham said in April 2019 that “many different communities” across Britain would feel “deeply unsettled” by the American leader’s planned state visit.
“There are many people who live in this country who will be deeply troubled by this visit,” Mr Burnham said at the time.
The then-mayor of Greater Manchester also said he “wouldn’t welcome” a visit by Mr Trump to the city, warning that it would be “highly divisive and cause real protests on our streets”.
In 2021, on the day of the US Capitol attack on January 6, Mr Burnham said UK politicians should be “ashamed” to deal with Mr Trump.
However, in comments to the Manchester Evening News in 2019, Mr Burnham appeared to partially retreat from his earlier pledge never to meet Mr Trump.
He said he would speak to the US president, but only to challenge him directly.
In further criticism of Mr Trump in 2021, on the day of the US Capitol attack on 6 January that year, Mr Burnham claimed UK politicians should be ‘ashamed’ of dealing with the US President.
‘Any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now,’ Mr Burnham posted on Twitter at the time.
Mr Burnham spoke to Mr Trump on the phone on his first day as PM, during which he invited the US President to Manchester for the G20 summit next year.
