'That's Politics': Minister Clears the Runway for Burnham's First Trump Meeting
The government spent Sunday defusing its Prime Minister’s back catalogue: his old line that any politician giving Mr Trump the time of day “should be ashamed” was, Bridget Phillipson offered, simply “politics… and the president knows that” — “the relationship between the UK and the US goes beyond any one president, any one prime minister.” Ed Davey demanded the opposite: “he needs to tell Donald Trump some home truths” — the “cosying up… done by Keir Starmer absolutely failed miserably.”
Every British premier eventually performs this conversion — campaign contempt into governing civility — but Mr Burnham’s version carries unusual freight: his authenticity is the brand, and the gap between 2021’s ashamed and Tuesday’s handshake is exactly the material his opponents on both flanks will work, Mr Davey from principle, Reform from mockery. The “third way” his team briefs — neither Starmer’s embrace nor confrontation, bond where possible, Ukraine always — is sensible and untested against a president who reads deference thresholds instinctively and has spent the month questioning British sovereignty from Dublin to the Falklands. The Northern Ireland tripwire sits armed on the table between them. Watch the first thirty seconds of the photo-op — presidents decide these relationships before the agenda opens.