Britain-focused Andy Burnham starts racking up the air miles

NEW YORK — Even senior Whitehall officials believed Andy Burnham would not attend the U.N. General Assembly until the announcement came from the British prime minister’s own mouth. Unlike his predecessor Keir Starmer, whose globetrotting earned him the nickname “never here Keir,” Britain’s new leader cast himself as a folksy man of the people, focused on domestic issues such as the cost of living and moving centers of state power outside London. Two months in, Burnham is finding no premier can ignore the pull of diplomacy. He landed in New York late Monday night for a whirlwind schedule of meetings with world leaders, including his first face-to-face with U.S. President Donald Trump.