Key facts
- Andy Burnham said: "Well, President Trump has accepted the results," after the US midterm elections.
- Burnham said he cannot reduce cost of living pressures until the Middle East conflict and the war in Ukraine are resolved.
- The BBC reported that within the UK government the Iran war and its energy price effects are widely seen as a leading driver of cost of living pressures.
- Burnham's relationship with Trump so far amounts to a handful of phone calls and one meeting at the United Nations in New York in September, the BBC reported.
- The Express reported that Republicans lost the midterms and that South Carolina elected a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Andy Burnham said President Donald Trump had accepted the results of the US midterm elections, the BBC reported on November 4, 2026. The comment was the prime minister's first public reaction to the vote, in which Republicans lost, according to the Express.
Burnham said the world had an opportunity to unite around the cost of living, and that he could not get people's cost of living pressures down until the conflict in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine started by Russia were resolved. The BBC reported that within the UK government the Iran war and its effects on energy prices are widely seen as the biggest individual contributor among factors driving up the cost of living.
The BBC reported that Burnham's relationship with Trump so far amounts to a handful of phone calls and one face-to-face meeting at the United Nations in New York in September. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, speaking to BBC Newscast before the votes were counted, referred to the Iran war when asked whether a domestically weakened Trump might prove more belligerent internationally, without giving a direct answer.
The Express reported that Republicans suffered a defeat in the midterms, that South Carolina elected a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in nearly 30 years, and that Trump's party lost as US bombs began falling on Iran. The Express column also said fuel prices would continue to rise and erode Burnham's fiscal headroom, and that the £100 off energy bills announced in the Budget already felt inadequate to families facing cost of living pressures.