Andy Burnham has said he will always put Britain’s interests first in his dealings with the US – even if it means disagreeing with Donald Trump.
The new prime minister told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that he would publicly stand up to the US president if necessary, adding: “You have to defend your own national interest before anything else. That’s what you’re required to do if you’re to do this job properly.”
He said: “I can’t at any point say that I won’t take a different opinion from him [Trump], that I will need to voice a different idea that is right for Britain.”
The pair spoke over the phone on Monday, within an hour of Mr Burnham arriving in Downing Street, in a call described by Downing Street as “extremely warm”.
After the call, Mr Trump stated in a post on Truth Social that Mr Burnham “has got a big job ahead of him, but he will be able to do it” and pledged that the US “will be there to help”.
It comes after relations between Washington and Sir Keir Starmer’s government became increasingly fractious over the Iran conflict.
Meanwhile, Mr Burnham made it clear he intends to find the money to fill the UK’s black hole on defence spending and meet its international commitments.
The new prime minister has faced some criticism for not doing major interviews or press conferences since taking over from Keir Starmer last Monday.
But in an interview to be broadcast in full on Monday, Mr Burnham tackled head on one of the big issues he will face as prime minister.
His new chancellor John Healey had resigned from the Starmer government because of a £13bn shortfall in the Defence Improvement Plan. It then transpired that there was a further £4.7bn black hole in what had been committed to.
The new prime minister made it clear that he appointed Mr Healey as chancellor with his words on defence spending in mind and made it clear he intends to find the money at a time when questions are being asked how he plans to fund other smaller commitments including removing VAT from energy bills, 20 per cent from pub and club business rates and capping bus fares to £2.
Mr Burnham said: “I appointed my new chancellor very aware of what he had said about the critical importance of defence spending and the position that he had taken about that.
“The first challenge facing us both is to ensure that the defence investment plan is fully funded and that’s the thing that’s right in front of us and we need to work that through as we go towards the budget later this year.”
But Mr Burnham also made it clear that he is ruling out an early election to get a fresh mandate to allow him to raise taxes like income tax, VAT or national insurance.
Currently, Labour’s 2024 manifesto, which Mr Burnham says he will stand by, rules out increasing those major taxes.
He said: “I’m going to rule it out. I don’t think people want it.”
He added that his focus instead was on “getting the country back where it should be”.