DONALD TRUMP has claimed Andy Burnham intends to ditch Labour’s 2024 pledge against new fossil fuel licences and “open up North Sea oil.”

According to the US president, the comment was made in their first phone call on July 20, just hours after Mr Burnham became Prime Minister.

Speaking in the White House, Mr Trump claimed: “He said he’s going to open up North Sea oil.

“If the United Kingdom would use it, they’d be a wealthy country again. And I tell you what, I could not get Starmer to use it. It was incredible.”

Accusing Mr Burnham of “playing fast and loose with our climate,” Scottish Greens co-leader Gillian Mackay MSP said: “It’s coming across as if Andy Burnham tells voters one thing at an election and then, once in office, tells Donald Trump something completely different.

“He must tell the public exactly what he promised Donald Trump.”

In response, a British government spokesperson pointed to an official account of the phone call which noted a focus on “reindustrialisation,” but made no mention of any discussion of the North Sea.