Time to focus on cost of living, says PM after US election results

Andy Burnham has said the results of the US midterm elections meant there was an “opportunity now to unite around the issue that is affecting us all, and that’s the cost of living”.

Speaking to broadcasters from the Commonwealth leaders summit, the prime minister promised to push for a resolution to the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine in the wake of the US elections that saw Donald Trump’s Republicans suffer heavy losses.

He said he couldn’t ease cost of living pressures until the US’s conflict in Iran had been resolved.

Responding to the midterm results, the US president acknowledged that rising fuel prices – caused by the Iran war – had played a part in his party’s defeats.

Speaking to Fox News, President Trump said: “People agree with what I’m doing on Iran but they really probably weren’t willing to do the short term consequences of paying more for gasoline – I understand that.”

Giving his reaction to the results, Burnham said the voters in the US have said they want to “see the world coming together and focusing on the things that matter to people”.

Asked whether he thought the results might make the US president more unpredictable, Burnham said: “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.”