𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Paul Daniels, the late, great magician, would have neatly summed up this week in Westminster with his famous catchphrase – not a lot. We’re in that strange stasis where parliament is in recess, just fortnight after returning from the summer break, and party conference season – Reform UK aside – hasn’t quite got into full swing yet.

The TUC, where Union Barons and their lefty bandwagon gathered in Brighton for a few days, didn’t really attract much attention. Andy Burnham had been due to give a speech but pulled out on compassionate grounds following the death of his father Roy. It was largely dominated by row over Nigel Farage’s party’s two £36 million mega-donations which have dramatically changed the political landscape.

Because it’s been a bit quiet I thought I’d look ahead to what’s happening next week, which promises to be the beginning of an exciting time in British politics. And, no, I’m not talking about the Liberal Democrat conference which kicks off in Brighton this weekend.

As important or insignificant as Ed Davey’s travelling yoghurt-weaving circus is, what I’m talking about is Burnham’s first major international test as Prime Minister when he meets Donald Trump in New York. The Prime Minister is travelling to the Big Apple for the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations. The King of the North is due to hold face-to-face talks with the US President with the Middle East crisis and Ukraine high on the agenda.

But there are other thorny issues, namely the Falklands and Chagos Islands, as well as North Sea drilling and Israel that threaten to make the meeting less comfortable than the Labour leader hoped.

Experience tells me that Prime Ministerial trips to the City That Never Sleeps have a habit of throwing up a curveball.

I was in New York covering David Cameron’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly in 2014 when the former Prime Minister made a right-Royal gaffe. He was forced to make a grovelling apology after revealing the Queen had “purred” down the telephone when he called her to say Scotland had voted No to independence.

His indiscreet comments had been captured on a microphone during a chat with the city’s former mayor Michael Bloomberg. It somewhat overshadowed the visit which came as Mr Cameron and ex-US President Barack Obama led calls to crush Islamic State fanatics. Five years later I was there again, this time with Boris Johnson who was trying to ram through Brexit back home.

Hours after our arrival in America’s largest city the Supreme Court ruled that his decision to suspend Parliament for five weeks was unlawful. Cue bedlam.

The Labour Party conference was cut short and it appeared that Johnson would have to jump straight back on a plane to London. At one point it was suggested that us journalists who had travelled across the Atlantic with the PM would have to make our own way home!!. Anyhow, things calmed down after a few frantic hours but, yet again, the Prime Minister’s trip to New York was overshadowed.

With that in mind, I’ll bring you all the juicy details of what happens on the other side of the pond next week.