Andy Burnham did his best to charm Donald Trump as the world leaders shook hands for the first time last night.

The leaders put aside their political differences and talked about how they could shore up the UK/US relationship during private meeting in a ‘crusty basement’ in Manhattan.

Analysing the historic meet-up, body language expert Judi James told : ‘While Trump adopted his signature alpha hunch and splay pose with his steepled fingers hanging between his knees, Burnham sat looking uneasy and tense, crouched forward with his rather large hands doing a display of several non-verbal signals of nerves.

‘He kept them in a meshed clasp for a while but while Trump sat looking relaxed Burnham’s fingers looked tightly meshed and when he unlinked them there was some picking of his fingers and even a fiddling with his wedding ring.

‘These looked like self-comfort or self-soothe rituals that hinted that he, as a down-to-earth style of leader, was out of his comfort zone meeting all the Trump power-play.’

She added: ‘He splayed his hands as he spoke but it looked like a diminishing “shrug” for his points. Trump was in a mellow mood though and he did look attentive as Burnham spoke although there was a giveaway “tell” when his fingertips began to tap together in a metronomic gesture that suggested some impatience.

‘There was one glimpse of a possible potential for rapport when Burnham was asked whether he preferred Manchester to Manhattan and he seemed to perk up to reboot his natural sense of humour. The two men laughed together for a moment, but it looked as though, as the sixth PM of Trump’s presidency, Burnham might need to put in some considerable graft with him to establish himself as both a keeper and a man of power and strength.’

After their meeting at the UN General Assembly in New York, Mr Trump said the allied nations’ special relationship is ‘more up’ now – and stronger than it had been with Mr Burnham’s predecessor, Keir Starmer.

Asked if he thought Smiths fan Mr Burnham was a ‘man you can do business with’, Mr Trump responded: ‘Yeah I do. He’s a natural business person.

‘We’ve had a lot of discussions, even before this meeting. He gets it. He understands what he has to do.

‘Based on my relations with your prime minister, Andy, I think we’re doing very well,’ he told reporters.

The unpredictable Mr Trump had previously dubbed ex-Manchester mayor Mr Burnham the ‘mayor of some town’, and suffered a frosty relationship with Sir Keir in his final days at No.10 after he refused to help the US war in Iran.

But after meeting Mr Burnham face-to-face, the president said Britain has ‘tremendous potential’.

‘It is a country with great patriotism. People love the country and, I think, it’s a country just waiting for success,’ he said.

Mr Burnham said he spoke to the US leader about issues on trade, Ukraine and the Falkland Islands.

Asked about UK support for the US war on Iran, he added: ‘We’re still ready to play our part in the Middle East, in terms of helping you stop the conflict, open the Strait [of Hormuz].’

‘We’re with you that Iran must never be a nuclear power,’ he continued.

‘It has been great to be with you and the team today,’ he told Mr Trump.

Earlier in a wide-ranging speech, even by Mr Trump’s standards, he roasted Iranian leaders, sitting yards from him. ‘Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before?’ he asked. ‘Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly?’

He also said Russia’s four-year war in Ukraine would soon end. ‘We will get that one done,’ he said confidently.

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