Burnham is to meet Trump for the first time tomorrow with Ukraine, Iran and the Falklands all on the table
From the Newshound archive · first published 21 September 2026.
Andy Burnham (left) and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Downing Street is keeping the PM's first face-to-face encounter with Donald Trump deliberately brief to limit the risk of a blowup at the UN General Assembly.President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. Xi is now travelling to Washington for a summit with Trump later this week, following talks that Bessent described as successful.
Andy Burnham will come face-to-face with Donald Trump on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, his first encounter with the US president since becoming prime minister in July. Burnham is expected to press Trump on interceptor missiles for Ukraine and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran has sent oil prices spiking and hammered the British economy.
Trump called Burnham 'a very nice guy' but 'on the liberal side' last week, while needling London over Irish unification and the Falklands.
Burnham once said Trump would not be welcome in Manchester and vowed he would refuse to meet him — ministers are now brushing off his past criticism as 'just politics'.
Downing Street is reportedly aiming to keep the encounter short to limit the risk of a disaster, with no major deals expected.
