Trump has some advice for ‘extremely liberal’ Andy Burnham | News UK

Donald Trump has some advice for seemingly incoming Andy Burnham that Sir Keir Starmer refused to heed.

Trump didn’t seem to know very much about the all but anointed Labour leader who was the mayor of Manchester population 600,000.

Asked what he thought of Burnham, he said: ‘I don’t know, I think I see that he was, I guess, the mayor of a town.

‘I hear he’s extremely liberal, extremely, so that means he probably won’t open up the North Sea.’

Trump had made a parting shot at outgoing Sir Keir who he said had ‘two problems’ before naming three: immigration, North Sea oil and crime.

He added: ‘I gave Keir Starmer some pretty good advice. I said, open up the North Sea, go to Aberdeen, which was the hottest city of the whole continent.

‘It was the oil city of Europe, and they closed everything. It was terrible. I couldn’t believe it.

‘The North Sea is loaded, I have had every oil company come to see me “Sir, could you give us access to the UK? We would do anything to drill in the North Sea”.

‘The amazing thing is, they buy their oil from Norway, which gets the oil from the North Sea. Think of it, and they pay a big premium.

‘Norway’s got now two trillion dollars in the bank, and the UK is dying, so they should open up the North Sea, and it’s an easy one, and a lot of good things are going to happen.

‘It’s among the greatest deals in the world.’

Asked if he would want to be the first world leader for the new prime minister to visit globally, Trump said, ‘No, but I think we’re probably of a different persuasion.’

What does Andy Burnham think of Trump?

Well, it appears the feeling is mutual.

On the Makerfield campaign trail, Burnham warned: ‘Politics is getting more polarised. And the path we’re on, if we are not careful, is a path towards the politics of the United States of America.

‘A polarised, poisonous politics where people in communities don’t work together anymore.’

Last year, in an interview with The London Economic that included questions about the rise of right-wing, populist parties, he said: ‘I think we now have to have a real debate about what that means and the instability that [former prime minister] Liz Truss brought to Britain, I think Trump is bringing to the US and the world.’

In a 2024 book that he co-authored, Burnham did begrudgingly concede: ‘Whether we like it or not, Donald Trump and Nigel Farage have been effective in connecting with people who feel politicians have neglected the place where they live.’

And on January 6, as rioters stormed the Capitol, Burnham posted on X: ‘Any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now.’

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