US Vice President JD Vance has said Andy Burnham ‘or somebody else’ must deliver ‘significant change’ for Britain, as fears mount that the incoming Prime Minister could be on a collision course with President Donald Trump.
Burnham is set to be the seventh UK Prime Minister in just ten years, a level of political churn which Vance suggested points to a deeper malaise.
He argued the rapid turnover shows ‘something is very broken about British politics and that people are really crying out for significant structural change’.
In a subtle swipe at Burnham, the White House second-in-command questioned whether he was the right person to deliver that transformation, hinting that ‘somebody else’ may ultimately prove better suited to the task.
‘I hope that Andy Burnham – and if not Andy Burnham, somebody else – is able to deliver it,’ he said, ‘Because Britain is such a beautiful country, such an amazing place.’
Vance and Trump appear to share similar scepticism about Andy Burnham’s capacity to provide the upheaval they say the UK needs.
The President unleashed withering fire on Burnham last week when he wrote off the Manchester mayor as ‘extremely liberal‘, and admitted that he did not know much about him.
Anglo-American relations have been somewhat shaky during Keir Starmer’s premiership.
Trump summed this up in a typically blunt fashion when he first heard of Sir Keir’s resignation. He wrote a damning Truth Social post, saying the PM had ‘failed badly on two very important subjects- IMMIGRATION AND ENERGY (OPEN NORTH SEA OIL!)’.
Vice President JD Vance hit out at incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham – suggesting ‘somebody else’ might be better suited to deliver the ‘significant structural change’ Britain needs
After Trump hit out at the UK, saying Starmer had ‘failed badly’ on immigration and energy, fears of further tension were ignited when Trump slammed Burnham as ‘extremely liberal’ and admitted he didn’t know much about him
Vance echoed Trump on Burnham, telling the Sunday Times: ‘I don’t know a lot about Andy Burnham’, but added more diplomatically, ‘Obviously, Britain is one of our closest and most important allies.
‘So whoever is the prime minister, we’re going to work with them and work with them as successfully as we can.’
But Burnham has not taken this transatlantic criticism lying down, previously warning about the ‘poisonous’ nature of American-style politics and accusing Trump of bringing ‘instability’ to the US and the world.
The MP for Makerfield appears to believe that he is indeed the man to bring about structural change, but perhaps in a different way from what Trump and Vance are suggesting.
Burnham appears to recognise a problem with an ‘out-of-touch Left-progressive establishment’ that has failed to address working-class concerns. He argues this caused a rise in what he calls the ‘new radical Right’.
In his 2024 book ‘Head North’, Burnham and Liverpool City Mayor Steve Rotheram wrote, ‘whether we like it or not, Donald Trump and Nigel Farage have been effective in connecting with people who feel politicians have neglected the place where they live.’
In his speech setting out his vision for the UK last Monday, Burnham took a different tack to make the ‘structural change’ that Vance was calling for.
He suggested the devolution of power and decentralisation of government, with the establishment of a new power base he dubbed ‘No. 10 North’ in Manchester, would be the answer.
But the former mayor’s speech failed to set out his position on the American politicians’ most notable criticisms, which centre around UK policy on immigration and environmentalism.
Neither issue was mentioned at all.
Burnham struck back and slammed US politics as ‘poisonous’ but failed to set out his position on immigration and energy. Instead, his idea for structural change is the devolution of power, he said in his speech last Monday
Vance has said Britain ‘has been failed by its leadership for a long time’ on immigration.
The Vice President became involved in UK politics to this end last month when he slammed Keir Starmer on the murder of Henry Nowak, 18, in Southampton in December 2025.
His murderer, a Sikh man, Vikrum Digwa, stabbed Mr Nowak and then falsely told police at the scene the teenager had racially abused him. Police handcuffed and arrested him as he lay dying in the street.
There should be ‘righteous anger’ in response to the killing, he said, which he blamed on ‘the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants’.
Number 10 struck back, hitting out at ‘people trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets’.
The US State Department, headed by Marco Rubio, had also linked ‘two-tier policing’ to Mr Nowak’s death, which was rejected by Downing Street.
Just weeks earlier, Vance urged anti-immigration protesters in the UK to ‘keep on going’ and called on Britain to follow America in protecting its borders.
The Catholic politician has also in the past accused the UK of curbing free speech over abortion clinic buffer zones.
Explaining his stance, Mr Vance said: ‘To the extent that the President or I, or secretary Rubio, are going into European institutions and encouraging people to be better, it comes from a perspective of love and admiration.
‘Even though sometimes what we say is provocative.’
Meanwhile, Mr Trump used the Fourth of July celebrations to take another sideswipe at his transatlantic allies.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, the President said: ‘Europe is learning that when you take in Third World criminals, you become a Third World Country. It happens quickly, in just a blink of the eye. I was elected just in time!!!’
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