UK politics: Burnham says US midterm results have created ‘opportunity’ for world to focus on cost of living and ending Iran war - as it happened

Andy Burnham has said that he hopes the sweeping losses for Donald Trump’s Republican party in the US elections will give the world an “opportunity” to focus on ending the Iran war and easing the cost of living pressures.

In an interview at the Commonwealth summit in Antigua, asked if he was worried the results might make Trump more unpredictable, Burnham replied:

President Trump has accepted the results, and I feel the world has an opportunity now to unite around the issue that is affecting us all, and that’s the cost of living.

That has been the issue that I have put front and centre in my first three months in Downing Street, and we’ve made moves.

But I can’t get people’s cost of living pressures down until the conflict in the Middle East is resolved. The conflict in Ukraine started by Russia.

These are the things we have to focus on now, and I hope the world has a moment to do that. And certainly, in my calls with leaders, that is what I will be asking everybody to do.

Some politicians and commentators have interpreted the results as evidence that rightwing populism is in retreat around the world. But when asked if he thought the elections were part of a global pattern, Burnham was reluctant to make that claim. Instead, he replied:

I think people want to see the world coming together and focusing on the things that matter to people, and that’s what the voters, in my view, are saying in the United States.

Let’s get focused in a laser-like way on those cost of living issues. And I think around the world there’s a recognition that countries can’t do that on their own, and can’t do that when we have division between nations.

I’ve been working hard as prime minister to bring a new approach, a new approach in the Middle East, and the foreign secretary set that out [with the announcements about sanctions on illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank].

A new approach to Europe, and we believe that will help us get growth back up and reduce those cost of living pressures. But a new approach with the Commonwealth too.

Asked if Britain would be pushing for de-escalation in the Iran war, Burnham said:

I’ll be working for de-escalation. To make it very clear, we want to see a resolution, the Strait of Hormuz fully opened again. That’s what we will be working towards.