Andy Burnham’s visit to New York this week won’t be his first international trip as Prime Minister – but it’ll test him in a way the last one didn’t.
Last month, Burnham travelled to Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky, a move that’s become something of a rite of passage for British PMs.
Coinciding with Ukraine’s independence day, the trip was as warm and cordial as any of those previous ones. There were handshakes, defence agreements and impromptu guitar renditions of Smiths songs.
The United Nations General Assembly will be a very different prospect, one which is likely to have set nerves jangling a little louder in Downing Street.
After all, what is the threat of a Russian drone attack compared to a meeting with Donald Trump?
That is the big moment that will draw everyone’s attention tomorrow – even more so than Burnham’s big speech in front of world leaders, which is expected to take place soon afterwards.
But if all goes to plan, we may not be talking about it for very long.
The stakes are low for the encounter, with no major deals on the line. It’s expected that the PM may seek to press the President on support for Ukraine and there’s no shortage of other big issues to discuss, but it should be just that: a discussion, rather than a negotiation.
It’s a stark change in atmosphere from the early meetings between Trump and Burnham’s predecessor Sir Keir Starmer, who seemed to feel obligated to pile on the flattery as he tried to secure a major trade agreement.
A year and a half later, the UK government isn’t leaning quite so hard on the US, having decided – along with plenty of other Western governments – that it’s more productive to build relationships with more reliable allies.
Trump himself is in a different position too. After alienating much of the globe economically with his tariffs, he managed to dial up his unpopularity even further with his disastrous war on Iran.
As a result, he has never been weaker. Tricky midterm elections are just over a month away, and they will take place against a backdrop of rising costs for which he is almost single-handedly responsible.
So Burnham can afford to go without grovelling in New York.
And yet – this is still Donald Trump we’re talking about. Nothing is predictable, and the PM might find he needs to work to avoid any public blow-ups over immigration or renewable energy.
How does he plan to do it? Last month, he hinted that his tactic was to ‘find a connection’ while staying honest.
Burnham told Channel 5: ‘I’ve had a habit of saying what I feel over the years, and I will continue to do that. But at the same time, I’m somebody who works with people and tries to find common ground.’
Whether that will be enough to win around a president who still grits his teeth over the UK’s lack of unqualified support for the attacks on Iran, we’ll have to wait and see.
There might even be a Manchester-themed gift from Burnham, to kick the pair’s first face-to-face interaction off on the best possible terms.
Just don’t expect him to reach into his jacket pocket and whip out an letter from the King.
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