‘He gets it’, says Trump of Burnham at UN General Assembly meeting – UK politics live

Key events

Trump describes Chagos Islands deal as 'terrible', and claims Burnham has agreed to review it

Donald Trump described the Chagos Islands deal – a proposal by Keir Starmer’s goverment to give Mauritius sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, on condition that the US and the UK can continue to operate the Diego Garcia military base there for at least another 99 years – as “terrible”.

In the short press conference with Burnham, Trump said:

I don’t support it. I think it’s a terrible deal.

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. No, we were talking about that.

It’s strategically very important, very important. 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.

It’s amazing how strategic it is, and I think the prime minister is going to be looking at it. It’s very strategic location. And it’s unique

It’s a very important piece of real estate, militarily and strategically.

Andy Burnham responded with a simple: “Mmm, yup.”

Trump says his relationship with UK better now with Burnham as PM than with Starmer

Donald Trump was being polite and respectful for most of the very short press conference he held with Andy Burnham, but towards the end he could not resist a jibe about Keir Starmer.

Asked about UK-US relations by a reporter who said they had gone up and down, Trump replied:

No I think they’re up.

Well they’re more up now than they were with your last prime minister, let me put it that way.

I think right now, based on my relationship with the prime minister, Andy, I think that, I think we’re doing very well.

At one point the relationship between Trump and Starmer was good. But it got worse as Starmer started to criticise Trump publicly on issues like his proposal to annex Greenland, and his claim British troops avoided frontline action in Afghanistan. And the full rupture came when Keir Starmer refused to allow the US to use British airbases for attacks against Iran at the start of the war.

Trump says Burnham will be 'great PM', and Burnham says they have 'good connection', after friendly first meeting

At the start of the meeting with the press, this is what Donald Trump said about Andy Burnham.

I think he’s going to be a great prime minister. I think he’s got a lot of assets on his side.

We talked about everything from Rolls-Royce to energy, immigration. We covered a lot.

[The UK] is a really special country. And we are with you all the way, Mr Prime Minister.

And Burnham replied:

Thank you Mr President.

That’s wonderful. We really appreciate that.

This relationship matters so much to us. And we will build on that relationship.

You and I have established a good connection in our early discussions, and we’ve taken that further today.

We touched on Ukraine and it’s great to hear what you said today about the potential for progress there.

You know that 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].

Obviously, we’re with you that Iran must never be a nuclear power.

We accepted a call from Saudi Arabia … we are prepared to play our part.

And obviously you were good enough today to let us talk about some issues on trade. The Falklands we mentioned. And you were good enough to listen to us on those issues.

So it has been great to be with you and the team today.

Andy Burnam with Donald Trump, and their advisers, at the UN. Photograph: Toby Melville/PA

Burnham admits immigration big issue in UK politics

Burnham picks up on the topic of immigration. He says:

It was a very big issue at the Makerfield byelection and a lot of the British media will know that.

And I spoke about it then – our commitment is to get to a controlled approach. That’s what people want to see.

They’re not against migration overall. They know that people work in the NHS and in the care system. [There’s a] difference, though, when it’s managed or when it’s uncontrolled.

And the small boats is a very big issue for people. But crossings this summer were down 50% there or thereabouts on the number six years ago.

So sometimes people don’t hear that the progress is being made. But the progress is being made.

Trump also went on a bit about immigration. He says he managed to stop border crossings into the US.

Trump adopts positive tone about Burnham, saying he thinks they can do business, after their first meeting

Donald Trump is talking.

He is referring to a “great election win”. It is not clear if he mean’s Labour’s in 2024, or Andy Burnham’s – in Makerfield.

Burnham thanks Trump for his remarks.

He says he thinks they have established a “good connection”.

The BBC’s Chris Mason asks Trump if Burnham is someone he can do business with.

Trump says he thinks he is.

He describes Burnham as a “natural businessperson”.

We’ve had a lot of discussions even before this meeting. We’ve spoken to each other numerous times on the phone. I think so, I think so. He gets it. He understands what he has to do.

(There are not many people who describe Burnham as a natural businessperson but, from Burnham’s point of view, at least it’s positive.)

At the UN the reporters covering the Trump/Burnham meeting are going in now.

Donald Trump arriving a bit earlier for his meeting with Andy Burnham. Photograph: Kylie Cooper/Reuters

Trump holding talks with Burnham

Donald Trump and Andy Burnham are meeting now.

Originally journalists were told they would talk to the press briefly at the start of the meeting.

But now reporters have been told that they will be let in as the meeting ends for some words. Whether that will just be a few platitudes as Trump and Burnham pose for pictures, or whether they will take questions, is not entirely clear.

They are not in the Oval Office in the White House (which is looking even more lavish than usual now that Trump has given it billionaire bling decor). Instead they are at the United Nations building, which is functional and a bit shabby. Here is a shot from the live feed from the room where reporters are waiting.

We were told that the meeting would last for about half an hour, which means it should have been over by now. But nothing ever runs on time at the UN …

Holding room where journalists are waiting, before being admitted to room where Trump and Burnham are meeting Photograph: Press Association

Reform UK MSPs stage walkout from Scottish parliament after failing to block debate on independence

Turning away from the UN for a moment, Reform MSPs have staged a walkout from the Holyrood chamber after the party failed to get a debate on Scottish independence cancelled, the Press Association reports.

With first minister and SNP leader John Swinney having called a debate on Scotland’s right to decide, Malcolm Offord, the leader of Reform UK north of the border, insisted the issue of the constitution is a reserved matter and should not be discussed, PA says.

When his appeals to presiding officer Kenneth Gibson failed, Offord branded the debate a “farce” and led his MSPs in a walkout. Offord said:

This debate is not just a farce, it is an insult to the Scottish electorate who expect their politicians to deal with serious issues in their communities.

Offord argued that Scots want to see MSPs dealing with “shocking” homelessness figures released earlier on Tuesday, the nation’s public finances or drug deaths – with a further rise in these expected to be announced on Wednesday. He went on:

These are the serious matters of government.

In contrast this debate is ill-judged, self-serving and wholly inappropriate.

Reform won’t engage further in these pointless proceedings. We didn’t come into the parliament to waste our time on vanity projects, and therefore I withdraw my amendment and we will exit from the chamber.

MSPs were debating a motion from Swinney which declared: “Scotland is a nation that has a right to decide its own future.” It is set to be passed later.

We are now being told that the remarks from Andy Burnham and Donald Trump will come after they have had their meeting. Originally, they were expected to talk to the press before they went into their private session.

At the UN, journalists are now waiting outside the room where Donald Trump and Andy Burnham are holding their meeting.

PA has a live feed but it mostly looks like this.

Journalists wait for Burnham/Trump meeting to start Photograph: PA

'Almost as silly as his photo stunts' - Reform UK and Tories claim Lib Dems' proposed £17bn tax cut not properly funded

Back to Ed Davey, and the Conservatives and Reform UK are both saying that Ed Davey’s proposed £17bn tax cut is not properly funded.

This is from Alex Burghart, the deputy Tory leader.

The Liberal Democrats are suffering from a bout of collective amnesia. Over the past two years they have aided and abetted Labour’s destruction of our economy. Now they are trying to shift the blame on to a vote that happened a decade ago.

Ed Davey has forgotten that you have to pay for access to the single market and customs union, giving up control both of your borders and your trade policy as well as your cash.

He wants to turn back the clock, taking us back to 2016. The Conservatives, in contrast, are focused on taking our country forward, and on getting Britain working again, including by setting out tax cuts that are actually costed.

And this is from Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK Treasury spokesperson.

Sir Ed is welcome to steal our policies, but his plan to pay for it is almost as silly as his photo stunts. At this rate, the Lib Dems’ fantasy economics would make Liz Truss blush.

The socks-and-sandals brigade would have to make the same choices we will: Cut the benefits bill, end net zero handouts, and slash foreign aid. But they refuse because they are incapable of putting the British people first.

In a briefing note about the plan to raise tax thresholds announced by Davey, the Liberal Democrats say:

The House of Commons Library estimates that this plan would cost £17bn in year five. This would be paid for by the dividends from the party’s plan for a new Growth and Defence Plan with Europe, which is estimated to be £27bn a year by the end of the next parliament.

This is from Pippa Crerar on Donald Trump’s speech to the UN, and where he differs from Andy Burnham on AI.

Trump vows to oppose any international regulation of AI – as proposed by Andy Burnham and separately by the Finns/ Norwegians.

US President says he wants to rename AI “super intelligence” because “artificial” suggests that it’s fake – and says he will win the AI race with China.

“We will only encourage super intelligence, not rein it in,” he says, adding that US has “never backed away from a frontier”.

But Andy Burnham is pushing for multilateral agreement on AI. He told a business event in NYC earlier:

“We want to pick up the initiatives that are beginning to emerge, develop, and bring them into a single set of global principles and standards that are very much about unlocking the full potential whilst guarding against the risks.”

Lucy Campbell has more on Trump’s speech on our US politics live blog.

Varun Chandra (left), the prime minister's chief business, investment and trade adviser and Ruth Porat, president and chief Investment Officer at Alphabet and Google, listening to Andy Burnham at a business and investor roundtable in New York today. Photograph: Toby Melville/PA

Ed Davey's speech - snap verdict

Nature abhors a vacuum, a sage once said. (Which sage is a matter of dispute, but Rabelais, summing up Aristotle, is a common answer.) If it is true of nature, it is even more true of politics. The biggest gap in British politics at the moment is the one created by Kemi Badenoch when she became Tory leader and swerved her party to the right, leaving anyone with an allegiance to one nation, or pro-European, or moderate Conservatism essentially homeless.

Not anymore. With his speech today, Ed Davey did not just appeal to these voters (something he has been doing for a while). He came close to plonking his party on this territory.

There was little or nothing in the speech that someone like David Cameron or John Major would fundamentally disagree with. And while Davey used the word liberalism a lot (making a coherent argument linking Lib Dem community campaigning to respect for the “value of every human being”, and positing this as an antidote to far-right populism), he largely avoided the sort of internationalism or moral idealism you would have heard from predecessors like Paddy Ashdown, Charles Kennedy or Menzies Campbell. There was not much there about equality. And electoral reform – seen by many as the holy grail for liberal democracy – was more or less absent, apart from a cryptic reference to changing the nature of politics.

For the first time in postwar politics, Britain has a prime minister with a firm and apparently sincere commitment to PR. But, on the basis of this speech, you would assume that Davey was not particularly interested.

Instead, Davey’s big announcement was a tax cut – which is what you would expect from moderate Conservatism.

That does not mean it was a bad speech. It was clear, coherent, and well-argued; it was refreshingly free of naff jokes; and the references to his family were interesting and moving. The passage about how the politics of “hatred and intolerance” have always been defeated in the past was also inspiring.

For anyone who may have voted Conservative in 2024, but who finds Kemi Badenoch a bit extreme and who is horrified by the idea of Nigel Farage becoming PM – ie, key target voters for the Liberal Democrats – it would be very appealing.

But will Lib Dem activists like it? My colleague Peter Walker, who has been with them in Brighton this week, isn’t sure. He says:

Offering £17bn in tax cuts - even some time in the future - is certainly bold, but not sure it will ease the worries among Lib Dem MPs about the lack of a coherent vision for the party.

And here is Davey’s peroration.

For the family doing the sums at the kitchen table, who need it to be just a little bit easier.

For the mother holding her newborn baby, who should be able to look forward with hope.

For John, and everyone like him, who deserve care that empowers them to thrive.

For that young woman on her doorstep, whose Britishness should not be up for debate.

Let’s build a country that works for them.

Let’s put more money in people’s pockets and more power in people’s hands.

Let’s change our politics so we can build a country that is richer. Safer. More liberal in the truest sense of that word – not a label, but a promise:

That who you are, where you’re from, and what you look like will never determine whether you belong here or how far you can go.

Friends, this is a fight for the future of our country.

A fight for liberty, equality and community.

A fight for the values we hold dear.

This is the fight of our lives.

And we are going to win it.

Ed Davey delivering his speech. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Davey says 'change to nature of politics itself' is needed

Davey said politics is broken.

But Conference, there is a bigger, more fundamental change we need to talk about.

A change to the nature of politics itself.

Because the things that have gone wrong in our country, the crises we face – the maternity crisis, the housing shortage, the sewage scandal, the cost of living, the sense that nothing quite works the way it should –

These are not the failings of the British people. Not for one second.

These are the failings of governments. Labour governments. Conservative governments. SNP governments in Holyrood.

Davey says raising the tax allowance is a progressive policy.

[The Reform UK] tax cut is paid for through cruelty.

Ours is paid for by the growth of a stronger economy.

We did it before. We can do it again.

And we can go further, to tackle a second unfairness – one we didn’t deal with when we were in government.

Back then, we rightly focused on raising the personal allowance – but let more people fall into the 40p income tax band.

And the post-Brexit stealth taxes have pulled more and more people into paying that higher rate tax.

Thirty years ago, just 2 million people paid it. Now it’s 9 million.

A tax band designed for stockbrokers is now holding back teachers and nurses.

That’s not fair. It’s not right.

And tellingly, Reform have said they will do nothing about it.

But we will. Because our growth plan will mean we can raise the 40p threshold to £56,000.

Taking hundreds of thousands of ordinary people out of paying higher rate tax.

Growing our economy with Europe. Backing our great British businesses. Putting money back into people’s pockets.