The new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham assured Sunday that he would not hesitate to express possible disagreements with Donald Trump in order to “defend the national interest” of the United Kingdom, refusing in passing to comment on the confidence he places in the American president.
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“I cannot at any time exclude having an opinion diverging from his, nor having to take a different position which is in the interest of the United Kingdom,” declared the head of the Labor government, who came to power on Monday after succeeding Keir Starmer at the head of Labor, according to extracts from an interview granted to the BBC.
Andy Burnham spoke to the US president on his first day in Downing Street.
“I will judge on the evidence, and I found him very warm on Monday, that said, we will obviously continue to build this relationship over time,” he said.
Asked twice about his confidence in Donald Trump, he replied: “the world is changing… and we must adapt to the situation. I cannot at any time say that I will not be of a different opinion to him or that I will never have to defend a position more favorable to the interests of the United Kingdom. And I will.”
As Prime Minister, “you must defend your own national interest above all other considerations,” insisted Andy Burnham, 56, who joined Downing Street after almost a decade at the head of the metropolitan area of Manchester, a city in the north of England.
At the end of their telephone exchange on Monday, Donald Trump indicated on his Truth Social platform that the new head of government had “a lot of work ahead of him, but that he would be able to do it”.
He also assured that his country will be “there to help”.
The previous month, when asked about Andy Burnham when the latter was expected to enter Downing Street, Donald Trump had estimated that he seemed “extremely liberal”, in the societal sense of the term.
The American president did not hesitate to criticize Keir Starmer, particularly after the former British prime minister refused to give his full support to the Israeli-American strikes against Iran.
In a separate interview broadcast the same Sunday, the new British Defense Minister, Wes Streeting, also refused to say he was confident in Donald Trump.
“I don’t know him, but I trust the United States,” he said on the channel Sky News.
