Prime Minister Andy Burnham stood up to Donald Trump in a first meeting in New York.

Trump called Burnham a ‘natural business person’ but criticised the Chagos Islands deal in front of reporters after meeting privately in a ‘crusty basement’.

But Burnham bit back, correcting the President after he previously called Manchester ‘some town’.

Burnham said: ‘I like to remind the President every now again that you once called the great city of Manchester “some town”, and I don’t hold it against you as the former mayor.

‘I’m patriotic as well I was explaining to the President today, Britain has been in too much turbulence, a sense of just not knowing where we’re going.

‘We’re going to lay out a plan for Britain, a 10-year direction.

‘The country’s got so much going for it, and it’s time to turn the story about Britain to a positive story, get some hopefulness going around the country. Leaning over to Trump, he said: ‘And I think you were saying today that very much is how you see it, right? And there’s you know a great opportunity for us as we go.’

The US president opened a meeting between the two men at the United Nations General Assembly by saying: ‘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.’

Donald Trump said relations between the UK and US were ‘more up’ than they were under Sir Keir Starmer.

Responding to a question on fluctuating relations between London and Washington, the US president told the press: ‘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 the deal over Rolls-Royce was a ‘deal that nobody else could make’.

He continued: ‘We made sure that Rolls-Royce was being properly taken care of. We didn’t force them to do things like build the Rolls-Royces in Brooklyn, New York. We didn’t do that.’

He added: ‘I think right now, based on my relationship with your Prime Minister, Andy, I think we’re doing very well.’

Trump also said Mr Burnham a ‘natural business person’ who ‘understands what he needs to do’.

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