Andy Burnham and Donald Trump Andy Burnham intends to be “very upfront” with Donald Trump once he’s in office, the incoming prime minister said. Burnham will be sworn in as Labour leader on Friday and receive the keys to No.10 – formally becoming Keir Starmer’s replacement – on Monday. But he has already made it clear that he will not try to replicate the reputation Starmer secured early on in his premiership as the “Trump whisperer”. Speaking on Gary Lineker’s podcast, Burnham said: “Maybe in a similar way to the way I’ve just described, I’ll just meet him where he’s at. “And, you know, I like to think I’ve got some personality myself and I’ll just, you know, I’ll deal with him very upfront in the same way. “I think he likes people to deal with him.” The US president has already lashed out at Burnham, describing him as “extremely liberal” last month and predicting he “probably won’t open up the North Sea” for fresh exploration. He dismissed the incoming PM as “the mayor of a town” too, a reference to Burnham’s previous job in Greater Manchester. Burnham told Lineker: “He described Manchester as some town when he was referring to my position. “And I might have to... you know what Manx are like, Gary, that won’t have gone down fantastically well in the city I used to represent. “But yeah, you know, it’s about being yourself, isn’t it? “It’s about respecting the office, the relationship, the UK-US relationship. “But, you know, where you disagree, do it, but do it in a way that is kind of meeting him where he’s at.” While Starmer and Trump got on very well at first – with the prime minister even offering the US leader an unprecedented second state visit to the UK – their relationship went into decline this year. Starmer rejected the president’s calls for Europe to “give” him Greenland as the semi-autonomous island belongs to Denmark. He also rejected Trump’s false claims that Nato had never “been there” for the US, reminding the president that the defence alliance went to war in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks in New York. The prime minister then refused to allow US troops to use UK military bases for offensive strikes on Iran – and Trump ended up publicly attacking him, saying Starmer was “no Winston Churchill”. Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.