Ahead of Keir Starmer’s first public meeting with Donald Trump, his team were painfully aware of the fact that the President liked holding wide-ranging and seemingly never-ending press conferences in the Oval Office, using these almost as a trial of his opposite number. Therefore, extensive preparation was done in No 10 and the Foreign Office, with several scenarios tested and lots of ideas thrown around about how Starmer could disarm Trump. One bright spark had the notion of giving the President a signed letter from King Charles, because Trump is known to love signatures and collect mementos from famous people. That charm offensive seemed to work for a while. Then Trump savaged Starmer when he erred about giving unlimited support to the American-Israeli war on Iran.
Now there is a sense of deja vu as some of those same advisors, along with new additions to the top team, prepare another Labour Prime Minister for his first meeting with the President. But this time Andy Burnham’s No 10 has the benefits of past experience and hopes to learn from Starmer’s mistakes.
There is an awareness that even if the brush-past at the UN on Tuesday is not a full press conference, it will decide the headlines for the next 24 hours, and if Trump reacts in a volatile way, it could define Burnham on the world stage and set the mood of UK-US relations for the next few years.
So the aim is to get through it without a ruckus. But the lesson of Starmer’s engagement with President Trump, according to some jaded insiders, is that good relations with Trump flourish up until the moment the UK Prime Minister dares to disagree with him. Then all hell is let loose, regardless of how many friendly press conferences and smooth bilateral meetings have hitherto taken place.
Like other Labour figures – such as the former foreign secretary, David Lammy – Burnham has been publicly critical of Trump. Following the Capitol Riots in January 2021 Burnham, then Manchester Mayor, said “any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now”. Ahead of the visit the government has been keen to dismiss the impact of Burnham’s comments. When asked about his previous comments, Burnham said: “Politicians say things throughout their career, but now the important thing is to focus on the moment you are in.”
Luckily for Burnham, the chances of being publicly berated by Trump are slim. The pair will meet on the fringes of the assembly, most likely in one of the quiet meeting rooms dotted about the UN’s HQ.
There are several issues Trump is likely to want to talk about. In recent months, the US President has made public statements regarding Burnham’s position on North Sea oil and gas. After their first phone call on 20 July, Trump claimed the Prime Minister had pledged to “open up the North Sea” and he has repeatedly urged the UK to get on with drilling.
Two major decisions over the fate of the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields are currently sitting on Burnham’s desk, with neither likely to be made in the very short term. Jackdaw has been reportedly delayed until after the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. Burnham will need to walk a fine line here. Trump has been known to release the contents of sensitive meetings in posts to his social media platform Truth Social or in interviews with US media. Should Burnham disclose the decision his government intends to make, it could end up being released by Trump first.
Officials’ nerves have been calmed over the US administration’s muted response to the UK’s sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Other flashpoints could include a renewed discussion over the crisis in Iran, increased support for Ukraine, AI trade deals (Burnham has brought AI minister, Kanishka Narayan with him to New York) and Trump’s recent comments calling for a united Ireland. A lot to get through in half an hour.
One Labour figure is sanguine: “There are no illusions that we can charm our way to a new long term balance with America. The British government has now accepted that the Trump presidency will always be a hurtling chaos.”
There is now a greater sense of the bigger picture rather than simply media spectacle. One insider who helped prepare Starmer for his first Trump meeting reflects: “When Zelensky had the famous bust-up in the White House with Trump and Vance at their press conference, there was a collective guilt at the top of the UK government that we hadn’t spent time helping the Ukrainians prepare because we had been so focused on our own press conference.” More long term thinking is now the order of the day.
[Further reading: Andy Burnham’s plan for Britain]
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