UK minister says Trump's war with Iran will complicate next month's budget

Burnham and Trump to hold first face-to-face meeting at UN General Assembly

Bridget Phillipson told Sky News on 20 September that Trump’s war with Iran will make next month’s budget more difficult for Chancellor John Healey. Trump’s on-and-off military campaign, she said, has disrupted global oil supplies and caused “significant inflationary pressures,” making life more difficult for the chancellor as he plans the fiscal statement.

The economy was, Phillipson said, “in a strong position,” particularly on growth figures, but she acknowledged “very real challenges” stemming from the Middle East conflict and the impact on businesses and families in the UK. “Making sure that we are doing everything we can to give people that breathing space to tackle those challenges around the cost of living has been at the forefront of everything that Andy Burnham has done since becoming prime minister,” she said. “I know it’s at the forefront of the chancellor’s mind as he’s planning for that budget later on next month.”

Burnham is expected to meet Trump early next week at the UN General Assembly summit in New York. The two leaders have previously spoken twice by phone since Burnham entered 10 Downing Street. As Greater Manchester mayor, Burnham had said Trump would not be welcome in the city and that UK politicians who indulged him “should be ashamed.”

Asked whether those past comments would complicate the meeting, Phillipson said: “Look, I think what you’ve just described there is politics. The president knows that. This is far from unique. People will express views at different points on different topics. And that’s no bar to having a strong relationship.”

Burnham has previously defended his earlier comments about Trump in similar terms. “Well, he’s said things as well, and everyone says things as politicians,” he said. “In the moment, you meet people where they’re at, and you find a connection with people, and that’s always been my style.”

On the UK decision not to join Trump’s military campaign against Iran, Phillipson repeated the government’s position. “We took the decision not to involve ourselves in that conflict. That was the right call,” she said. “The US will take their own foreign policy decisions, but I believe, and still believe now, it was the right decision for us as a country not to get involved in that conflict. Of course, something that, had Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage been running the country, we would have jumped headlong into a conflict with it without end.”

In a later interview with the BBC, Phillipson dismissed comments by Jim Ratcliffe, the petrochemicals billionaire, who said this week he had lost confidence in the UK because of immigration levels and taxation. “You’ll forgive me if I do take with a pinch of salt what someone who is a tax exile has to say about our country,” Phillipson said. Ratcliffe is resident for tax in Monaco.

Phillipson framed the UK-US relationship as one that survives individual political differences. “We don’t have the same political outlook, but the relationship between the UK and the US goes beyond any one president, any one prime minister,” she said. “It’s something that has stood the test of time over many centuries, despite political differences. They come and go. What matters most is the British national interest. And that’s what Andy Burnham will deliver for our country.”