As Andy Burnham settles into his new role as Britain’s Prime Minister, his team is working overtime to secure a rapid meeting with US President Donald Trump. Fair enough. There is every reason for the two men to sit down for a getting-to-know-you session as early as possible during Burnham’s stewardship of the UK.
But when they meet, whether it is on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month, or in a separate bilateral meeting at the White House itself, the topic atop the Prime Minister’s agenda should not be the one he is currently planning to place on the front burner.
After traveling to Kyiv last month for face-to-face talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Burnham indicated he wants to sit with Trump to encourage him to re-engage in efforts to support Ukraine and broker a peace that does not reward its Russian aggressor.
Admirable though that move may be, it is rooted in a Starmer-esque failure to understand Trump’s indifference to Ukraine’s President and the country’s cause, his willingness to overlook virtually any outrage committed by President Vladimir Putin and the American leader’s demonstrable lack of interest in the time-consuming detail of peacemaking and diplomacy.
