By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-09-21 21:35:50 | Updated at 2026-09-21 22:22:09
50 minutes ago
Andy Burnham has dismissed his past attacks on Donald Trump, saying that “politicians say things throughout their career”, as he prepares to meet the US President for the first time at a major summit in New York.
The Prime Minister – who is en route to the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York – also said that he had chided the US President for describing Manchester as “some town”.
It will be the pair’s first face-to-face meeting since Mr Burnham became PM two months ago. Since then, the pair have spoken twice on the phone.
In the past, Mr Burnham has been heavily critical of Mr Trump, saying that he was not welcome in Manchester, and during the Capitol Hill riots in January 2021 that “any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now”.
Asked about his past criticism, Mr Burnham said: “Politicians say things throughout their career, but now the important thing is to focus on the moment you are in.
“I did say to the President in our first phone call – I said – ‘Mr President, Manchester isn’t ‘some town’. I said, ‘This is Manchester’.
“And so yes, the right thing to do is to have a laugh about it, isn’t it, and move beyond it.”
Asked about his approach to dealing with Mr Trump, the PM said: “I’m looking forward to it. We’ve had two warm phone calls where we found a lot of common ground and connection, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings.”
Andy Burnham has played down any potential issues with the US President
Mr Burnham will use the meeting of the UN General Assembly to announce that next year’s meeting of the G20 group of world leaders will be in Manchester in late November.
He said: “I really am pleased to welcome him to Manchester and actually it’ll be a great opportunity to point to the incredible US history that there is in Manchester. It’s the place where the cotton workers in 1862 refused to hand over slavery cotton, you know, that’s a massive piece of history that hopefully will resonate as the world gathers for the G20.”
Mr Burnham is later on Tuesday set to use a speech to other world leaders to say that developed countries should consider artificial intelligence to be a “force for good”.
He said: “I’m really looking forward to giving the speech tomorrow. It’s a big moment for me, really excited about it, because I’m going to be talking about British leadership in a new era, pointing to the 10 years we’ve lived through with Brexit and turbulence, and say we’re moving beyond that.”
He added: “So as we approach the G20 presidency, we will want to pick up the work that the U.S. presidency has done on AI and seek global agreement – unite the various initiatives that are there so we can really use the focus of the presidency to do that.”
