Donald Trump has issued a withering assessment of Andy Burnham, with the Makerfield MP the frontrunner to become the next Prime Minister.
Speaking after an Oval Office meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte, the President branded Mr Burnham as “extremely liberal” when asked about what he knew of the former Manchester mayor.
He told reporters: “I don’t know anything. I see that he was, I guess, the mayor of a town.
“I hear he’s extremely liberal. Extremely. So that means he probably won’t open up the North Sea”.
The Labour government’s reluctance to drill for oil in the North Sea has been a common bugbear of Mr Trump’s.
He added: “You know, I gave Keir Starmer some pretty good advice. I said, open up the North Sea.”
Discussing the state of the UK oil industry in the UK, the President said he has “every oil company come to see him” about having “access to the UK”.
He said: “I have had every oil company come to see me. ‘Sir, could you give us access to the UK? We would do anything to drill in the North Sea’.
“The amazing thing is they buy their oil from Norway, which gets the offer of the North Sea. Think of it, and they pay a big premium.
“Norway’s got now $2trillion in the bank and UK is dying, so they should open up the North Sea, and it’s an easy one. And a lot of good things are going to happen.”
