British Prime Minister Andy Burnham says he is prepared to challenge US President Donald Trump whenever Britain's national interests require it, stressing that his government will always put the UK first.
In his first major interview since taking office, Burnham told the BBC that every leader has a duty to defend their country's interests when asked whether he would publicly call out Trump if necessary.
"All leaders have to do that. You have to defend your own national interest before anything else. That's what you're required to do if you're to do this job properly," Burnham said.
The remarks come after Burnham succeeded Keir Starmer, whose relationship with Trump was strained over disagreements on the US-Israeli war with Iran, immigration, energy policy and technology regulation.
Although Trump initially described Burnham as "extremely liberal", he later said the two had a "very good conversation" following Burnham's appointment as Britain's prime minister.
Burnham also ruled out holding an early general election before 2029.
"I'm going to rule it out. Yeah, there's no early general election. I don't think people want it," he said.
On defence, Burnham reaffirmed Britain's commitment to NATO's new spending target, under which the UK has pledged to increase defence expenditure to 3.5% of GDP by 2035.
"We've got to work out the way of doing that," he said, adding that ensuring the government's defence investment plan is fully funded remains an immediate priority ahead of this year's budget.
However, Burnham stopped short of committing to a target of spending 3% of GDP on defence by 2030, despite previous calls for such a timeline by members of his government.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting later said decisions on the timetable for increasing defence spending would be made by the chancellor during future budgets and spending reviews.
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