Donald Trump tonight launched a fresh attack on Labour‘s ‘terrible deal’ to surrender the Chagos Islands in his first meeting with Andy Burnham.
As the Prime Minister watched on, the US President issued another blast at the Government‘s ‘ridiculous’ bid to cede the strategically-vital archipelago to Mauritius.
It followed his first sit-down talks with Mr Burnham, which took place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
‘I don’t support it. I think it’s a terrible deal,’ Mr Trump said. ‘They all of a sudden say they have ownership, somebody has ownership that never showed up before after decades and centuries. I think it’s ridiculous.’
The US President said he and Mr Burnham had spoken about the Chagos deal during their talks and suggested the PM would be ‘looking at it’.
Mr Trump added of what is officially known as the British Indian Ocean Territory: ‘It’s a very strategic location. And it’s unique… it’s a very important piece of real estate, militarily and strategically.’
As he spoke to reporters after his meeting with the PM, the US President also took a fresh swipe at Mr Burnham’s predecessor Keir Starmer, with whom he repeatedly clashed.
Mr Trump said US-UK relations were ‘more up’ than they were under Sir Keir, while he praised Mr Burnham as a ‘natural business person’.
Donald Trump tonight launched a fresh attack on Labour’s ‘terrible deal’ to surrender the Chagos Islands in his first meeting with Andy Burnham.
‘I think you’re up. Well they’re more now than they were with your last prime minister, let me put it that way,’ Mr Trump said.
‘I think right now, based on my relationship with your Prime Minister, Andy, I think we’re doing very well.’
Under an agreement struck by Sir Keir’s administration, Britain is set to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and then pay to lease back the UK-US military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands, for 99 years.
The deal would see Britain pay an average of £101million a year to Mauritius over that period, totalling about £3.4billion according to the Government’s figures.
But critics have said the real cost would actually amount to £35billion and warned about handing control of the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius, which is seen as an ally of China.
Labour’s so-called ‘surrender deal’ to cede sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius is currently in limbo following the withdrawal of American support for the agreement.
Mr Trump switched his position on the UK’s handover of the Chagos Islands amid a furious spat with Sir Keir earlier this year over the Iran war.
Parliament’s ratification of the agreement has since stalled.
Following his meeting with Mr Burnham on Tuesday, Mr Trump vented again about Sir Keir’s initial decision to refuse the US permission to use the Diego Garcia base to launch strikes on Iran.
‘It’s strategically very important, very important,’ the US President said.
‘You know, we had to send our B-2 bombers when we bombed the Iran nuclear, we sent the B-2 bombers back home to Missouri.
‘As opposed to flying for a short period of time, they had to fly for a long period of time.’
Responding to Mr Trump’s fresh outburst at the Government’s agreement to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage posted on X: ‘The Chagos deal is dead. Thank God.’
Although he made his displeasure with the Chagos deal clear, Mr Trump was personally warm towards Mr Burnham.
He also said that Britain was a country with ‘tremendous potential’.
As he met with Mr Burnham on the sidelines of the UN gathering, the US President said: ‘It’s an honour to be with the Prime Minister here – a great election win.
‘That was a big one, and I think he’s going to be a great Prime Minister. I think he’s got a lot of assets on his side.
‘And we talked about everything from Rolls-Royce to energy to immigration – we covered a lot.’
Mr Trump added: ‘It’s a really special country and we are with you all the way Mr Prime Minister.’
Mr Burnham replied: ‘Thank you Mr President, that’s wonderful. We really appreciate that. This relationship matters so much to us and we’ll build on that relationship.
‘You and I have established a good connection in our early discussions and we’ve taken that further today.’
The PM’s first face-to-face meeting with Mr Trump came after he had previously been fiercely critical of the US President and claimed UK politicians should be ‘ashamed’ of dealing with him.
Meanwhile, in June, during Mr Burnham’s successful bid to replace Sir Keir as PM following his victory in the Makerfield by-election, Mr Trump had labelled Mr Burnham as ‘extremely liberal’.
Asked what he knew about Mr Burnham, the US President said at the time: ‘I don’t know, I think I see that he was, I guess, the mayor of a town.’
Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s meeting with Mr Trump, Mr Burnham addressed his past social media rants about the US President.
He told reporters: ‘As I have said, politicians say things throughout their career, but now the important thing is to focus on the moment you are in, and I did say to the president in our first phone call, I said, ‘Mr President, Manchester isn’t some town’, I said, ‘This is Manchester’.
‘And so yes, the right thing to do is to have a laugh about it, isn’t it, and move beyond it.’
In April 2019, during Mr Trump’s first term as US President, Mr Burnham said ‘many different communities’ in Britain would be feeling ‘deeply unsettled’ by the American leader’s upcoming state visit to the UK.
‘There are many people who live in this country who will be deeply troubled by this visit,’ Mr Burnham said at the time.
The then-Greater Manchester mayor added that he ‘wouldn’t welcome’ a visit to Manchester by Mr Trump as it would be ‘highly divisive and cause real protests on our streets’.
In 2021, on the day of the US Capitol attack on 6 January that year, Mr Burnham claimed UK politicians should be ‘ashamed’ of dealing with Mr Trump
In his 2019 comments to the Manchester Evening News, Mr Burnham did appear to perform a partial U-turn on his previous declaration that he would refuse to meet Mr Trump at all.
Mr Burnham said that he would talk to Mr Trump, but only to call him out.
In further criticism of Mr Trump in 2021, on the day of the US Capitol attack on 6 January that year, Mr Burnham claimed UK politicians should be ‘ashamed’ of dealing with the US President.
‘Any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now,’ Mr Burnham posted on Twitter at the time.
Mr Burnham spoke to Mr Trump on the phone on his first day as PM, during which he invited the US President to Manchester for the G20 summit next year.
