In a largely warm shared press conference<\/a>, the president praised Mr Burnham as a \u201cnatural business person\u201d and the former mayor of Greater Manchester<\/a> said he had \u201cestablished a good connection\u201d with Mr Trump. <\/p>\n The prime minister said that the pair had \u201ctaken that further today\u201d as they discussed trade, energy and immigration among other topics during their 40-minute meeting.<\/p>\n Mr Trump told reporters: \u201cI think right now, based on my relationship with your prime minister, Andy, I think we\u2019re doing very well.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about relations with the UK, the president added: \u201cThey are more up now than they were with your last prime minister, let me put it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite their warm words towards one another, Mr Trump was critical of the UK\u2019s handling of the Chagos Islands<\/a>, leaving the deal in doubt. <\/p>\n The president described it as a \u201cvery important piece of real estate, militarily and strategically\u201d for both the UK and America.<\/p>\n A joint US-UK military base is located on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia<\/a>, which Britain would lease from Mauritius under the \u00a33.4 billion deal.<\/p>\n Mr Trump branded the agreement to hand sovereignty of the Indian Ocean islands to Mauritius as a \u201cterrible deal\u201d, and said that the prime minister was \u201cgoing to be looking at it\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Burnham paused before adding \u201cyep\u201d in response. <\/p>\n Later he did not deny that the Chagos deal could be dead.<\/p>\n Asked by the BBC, he dodged the question, saying it was an agreement he had inherited \u201cand we need a resolution\u201d.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cIt’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.\u201d<\/p>\n He also said he had raised the sovereignty of Falkland Islands with the US president, weeks after Trump suggested the US would not come to the UK\u2019s aid if Argentina invaded again.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d he said. He also said he had raised a \u201cspecific issue\u201d about how Trump\u2019s tariffs where negatively affecting a factory in north east of England, which he declined to name, but denied he had been called a \u201cnatural business person\u201d over the potential for more drilling in the North Sea. <\/p>\n The pair earlier appeared at odds over the future of AI<\/a>, with Mr Burnham calling for internationally-agreed regulation of the technology, while the President said the US would reject any such \u201cglobalist scheme\u201d.<\/p>\n The US president had opened the meeting by praising the prime minister\u2019s \u201cgreat election win\u201d in the Makerfield<\/a> by-election.<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cThat was a big one, and I think he\u2019s going to be a great prime minister. I think he\u2019s got a lot of assets on his side.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we talked about everything from Rolls-Royce to energy to immigration \u2013 we covered a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Trump added: \u201cIt\u2019s a really special country and we are with you all the way, Mr prime minister.\u201d<\/p>\n The Makerfield MP joked about Mr Trump referring to Manchester as a \u201ctown\u201d when the US president was first asked about Mr Burnham\u2019s rise to power<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t hold it against you as the former mayor,\u201d Mr Burnham said.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n He told reporters he had been \u201cexplaining to the president\u201d that Britain has \u201cbeen in too much turbulence\u201d, and that he had shared his vision for a decade of turning around the country\u2019s fortunes.<\/p>\n Sitting alongside the US leader, Mr Burnham added: \u201cI think you responded when I said we are going to lay out a plan for Britain, a 10-year direction.<\/p>\n \u201cThe country\u2019s got so much going for it, and it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRight,\u201d Mr Trump responded.<\/p>\n In his first speech to the United Nations, <\/a>Mr Burnham<\/a> insisted that Britain is not “on the slide” and used the stage to signal a fresh start following ten years of post-Brexit upheaval. <\/p>\n He also touched upon the \u201cindustrial-scale assault\u201d by hostile actors to target the UK and its Nato allies.<\/p>\n He said: “Russian agencies have used every means at their disposal to spread lies and disinformation and prey on people\u2019s fears. They\u2019ve used bots and fake websites. Falsified newspaper articles. Forged the branding of 28 British organisations \u2013 including universities and the BBC. They\u2019ve amplified far right narratives. And we have evidence that they tried to interfere with the 2019 General Election.<\/p>\n “We also know that they have tried to stoke tensions and unrest in the wake of horrific events. The idea that anyone would try to use such things to their advantage is just repulsive \u2013 but it is what they do. <\/p>\n “The Kremlin spends around \u00a31.3 billion each year on manipulating information.”We\u2019re talking about an insidious campaign that reaches into people\u2019s homes and twists what they feel about their own country and community \u2013 creating a narrative of decline, stoking division and sowing despair. On top of that we have seen cyber-attacks on our companies and institutions. And we know that AI will multiply the threat.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":779615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19306,184846,256958,6494,230,418,13676,59,57,58,11237,631,632,3873,50,6487,229,84397,256957,193168,256956,56,54,256955,11534,55,659],"class_list":["post-779614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-andy-burnham","tag-attending","tag-canadian-prime-minister","tag-color-image","tag-diplomacy","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-event","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-horizontal","tag-mark-carney","tag-middle-east","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-president-of-france","tag-prime-minister-of-the-united-kingdom","tag-treaties-and-international-organizations","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-nations-building-new-york-city","tag-united-nations-general-assembly","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=779614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/779615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Andy Burnham shakes hands with US president Donald Trump during a meeting on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (Getty)<\/p>\n
![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2296084620...jpeg\")
Andy Burnham attends the Middle East peace event “The Road Ahead: One Year After the New York Declaration and the Comprehensive 20-point Peace Plan” with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) (Getty)<\/p>\n