UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has signaled in his first major interview that he is prepared to call out Donald Trump to defend Britain’s national interest.
According to Burnham, he had a promising start with Trump finding him to be “really warm.” However, he remains committed to responding if anything changes and adapting on the fly as events develop.
During an interview which is to be broadcast on Monday he said: ‘ I can’t at any point say that I can’t take a different opinion from Trump, that I will need to voice a different idea that is right for Britain.’
“My strength is remaining close to people, close to the public that will not change as prime ministers, Burnham continued.”
The 56-year-old also said he was concerned about the president triggering a rapid chain of retaliation with Iran, adding that he stood by his position in that situation.
As reported by the BBC, when asked if he would criticize Trump if it was the right thing to do so he said: “You have to defend your own national interest before anything else, that’s what you are required to do if you’re to do this job properly.”
Burnham has avoided setting a desired date for when the government will spend 3% of GDP on defense. Notably, his Chancellor John Healey resigned from the former government stating that a commitment was already in line to reach that spending target by 2030.
“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, he added.”
Nonetheless, Burnham rejected the notion of an early general election before 2029, asserting: “ I am going to rule it out..I don’t think people want it.”
Currently, his ultimate focus is to stabilize the country and get it where it should be today.
