When Starmer met Donald Trump, he came well-prepared. The then-prime minister’s charm offensive in February 2025 included a historic invitation to a second state visit and a letter from the King, which Trump called “beautiful”.
When Andy Burnham met Trump for the first time yesterday, he had none of the same tricks up his sleeve. In fact, there was every chance it would end up an awkward first date.
As mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham was an outspoken critic of Trump. He said any politician giving him the time of day should be “ashamed”, outright refused to meet the US president, and described him as “not welcome” in Manchester.
In the latest episode of In The Room, former No 10 adviser Cleo Watson argued that paradoxically, this somewhat bumpy history could end up working in Burnham’s favour – and perhaps even leading to another ‘Mamdani moment’.
The now-infamous 2025 meeting between newly elected mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani and Trump had all the ingredients for an explosive shouting match. But in a move perhaps fitting for a president whose only consistent characteristic seems to be being totally unpredictable, the two seemed to utterly hit it off.
Cleo explained that the tension may have been exactly why it worked. “Everyone said it was going to be a punch-up, but they had this amazing, really friendly meeting. And Trump did say he actually prefers to deal with someone who says it as it is; who he doesn’t get on with.” The key is finding common ground.
But while Trump and Mamdani bonded over a belief in building housing and a love of New York, it may not be quite so simple for Burnham. Cleo’s co-host and ex-deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara cringed: “Do they both love Manchester?”
But perhaps the common ground in question will be much more literal: Trump’s love to ‘drill, baby, drill’.
“Donald Trump has said to the UK, particularly when Keir Starmer was here, ‘You need to get immigration sorted, and you need to get drilling for oil in the North Sea’,” Cleo says.
“I'm sure Andy Burnham will be keen to, in private, say: ‘These are things we're really turning our minds to.’ But I don't know whether he'd like that to be public before [Labour] party conference. It’s fraught.”
Burnham has already signalled support for oil and gas drilling, with sources saying the controversial Jackdaw gas field is set for approval “within weeks”, much to the concern of hundreds of scientists, health experts, and conservationists.
The meeting, ultimately, seemed to go... fine. Trump criticised the Chagos deal, calling it “terrible”, but praised Burnham as a “natural businessman”. And anyway, Cleo and Helen agree there was always going to be very little gain in over-planning for Trump. Even at a strategy level, the US president’s ‘mad-man’ approach has forced everyone to adapt.
“The way that second-term Trump has played out on the world stage has been really interesting. There used to be months and months of preparation [for a meeting like this]. But with Trump, he’s so unpredictable. In what he’s going to do or say, even what the atmospherics might be. It’s less about all of the prep work on the way, and much more about the prep of the follow-up.
“The question is now: Are we all poised and ready to deal with what random thing is gonna come up in this meeting?”
What does Burnham’s performance in meeting Trump signal about his ability to succeed on the world stage? While Starmer was criticised for a lack of integrity, Cleo worries that Burnham could swing in the other direction.
“He doesn’t strike me as amazingly good on his feet. Not least because he’s been so aggressive about Trump in the past, and he’s very in tune with what his base thinks. He’s slightly unusual in that he does actually operate with integrity, and he’s a deeply moral person. He’s very wedded to himself, which might not go down that well.”
Listen to the full episode of In The Room on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or watch on YouTube.
