Arabic version: الانتخابات النصفية الأميركية تثير تساؤلات لبيرنهام وترامب

According to BBC News, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said President Donald Trump had accepted the US midterm election results, as the British government considers what the outcome could mean for international diplomacy and the cost of living.

Burnham has had a handful of phone calls with Trump and one face-to-face meeting at the United Nations in New York in September. He is seeking to build a relationship with a president now in a markedly different political position following the midterms.

The government’s public response has focused on the consequences of the war with Iran, particularly its effect on energy prices. Burnham said the world had an opportunity to unite around the cost of living, but added that pressures could not be reduced until conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine were resolved.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the Strait of Hormuz was “not exactly closed, but not properly open, not free flowing”, and that this was affecting families at home. He said the UK was working towards a diplomatic route out of the conflict and had discussed it with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the G20 meeting in Atlanta last week.

Questions remain over whether Trump’s domestic defeat could make him more belligerent internationally, or encourage traditional US allies to work more closely with his domestic political opponents. The answers could shape world affairs over the next couple of years.