Donald Trump said US-UK relations are “more up” with Andy Burnham as prime minister following their first meeting, but he slammed the Chagos Islands deal as “terrible” and suggested that his counterpart was “going to be looking at it”.
The US president made the remarks after his first face-to-face talks with Mr Burnham, which took place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday,
In a largely warm shared press conference, the president praised Mr Burnham as a “natural business person” and the former mayor of Greater Manchester said he had “established a good connection” with Mr Trump.
The prime minister said that the pair had “taken that further today” as they discussed trade, energy and immigration among other topics during their 40-minute meeting.
Mr Trump told reporters: “I think right now, based on my relationship with your prime minister, Andy, I think we’re doing very well.”
Asked about relations with the UK, the president added: “They are more up now than they were with your last prime minister, let me put it that way.”
Despite their warm words towards one another, Mr Trump was critical of the UK’s handling of the Chagos Islands, leaving the deal in doubt.
The president described it as a “very important piece of real estate, militarily and strategically” for both the UK and America.
A joint US-UK military base is located on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia, which Britain would lease from Mauritius under the £3.4 billion deal.
Mr Trump branded the agreement to hand sovereignty of the Indian Ocean islands to Mauritius as a “terrible deal”, and said that the prime minister was “going to be looking at it”.
Mr Burnham paused before adding “yep” in response.
Later he did not deny that the Chagos deal could be dead.
Asked by the BBC, he dodged the question, saying it was an agreement he had inherited “and we need a resolution”.
He added: “It’s critical to safeguard the future of the base, and that matters to us for security reasons, but also clearly to the United States as well. So what I said in the meeting is that we will work to find that resolution between the different sides, and we’ll work hard to find it. It was clear that we need to come to that agreement, but I’m confident we can find it working with our US partners.”
He also said he had raised the sovereignty of Falkland Islands with the President, weeks after Trump suggested the US would not come to the UK’s aid if Argentina invaded again.
“I felt I owed it to the people, obviously in the Falklands and back at home, to make the position very clear and that’s what I’ve done today,” he said. He also said he had raised a “specific issue” about how Trump’s tariffs where negatively affecting a factory in north east of England, which he declined to name, but denied he had been called a “natural business person” over the potential for more drilling in the North Sea.
The pair earlier appeared at odds over the future of AI, with Mr Burnham calling for internationally-agreed regulation of the technology, while the President said the US would reject any such “globalist scheme”.
The US president had opened the meeting by praising the prime minister’s “great election win” in the Makerfield by-election.
He continued: “That was a big one, and I think he’s going to be a great prime minister. I think he’s got a lot of assets on his side.
“And we talked about everything from Rolls-Royce to energy to immigration – we covered a lot.”
Mr Trump added: “It’s a really special country and we are with you all the way, Mr prime minister.”
The Makerfield MP joked about Mr Trump referring to Manchester as a “town” when the US president was first asked about Mr Burnham’s rise to power.
“I don’t hold it against you as the former mayor,” Mr Burnham said.
Mr Burnham also appeared to counter narratives around Britain and other European nations falling into decline, an idea which has become a talking point among high-profile figures in the Trump administration.
He told reporters he had been “explaining to the president” that Britain has “been in too much turbulence”, and that he had shared his vision for a decade of turning around the country’s fortunes.
Sitting alongside the US leader, Mr Burnham added: “I think you responded when I said we are going to lay out a plan for Britain, a 10-year direction.
“The country’s got so much going for it, and it’s time to turn the story about Britain to a positive story, get some hopefulness going around the country, and I think you were saying today that very much is how you see it.”
“Right,” Mr Trump responded.
In his first speech to the United Nations, Mr Burnham will insist that Britain is not “on the slide”, using the stage to signal a fresh start following ten years of post-Brexit upheaval.
Before the speech, Mr Burnham indicated he would convey a “really upbeat message” about the UK, though he conceded that long-standing structural problems must be tackled to enhance living standards.
He also wantts to position Britain as an “honest broker”, capable of uniting international powers on regulatory frameworks, echoing Gordon Brown’s global leadership during the 2008 financial crisis.
