Andy Burnham’s first meeting with Donald Trump couldn’t have gone better. Predictions that his previous caustic comments about the US President would be thrown back in his face proved wide of the mark.

‘I think right now, based on my relationship with your Prime Minister, Andy, I think we’re doing very well,’ Trump gushed, before delivering the ultimate accolade: ‘He’s a natural businessperson.’

For his part, the Prime Minister skilfully evaded the numerous banana skins thrown towards him by the travelling press pack. Reminded of the President’s dismissive description of Manchester as ‘a town’, its favourite son laughingly declared: ‘I don’t hold it against you, as the former mayor.’

Within No 10 the mood was one of relief. ‘Before the meeting, people predicted Trump would tear a strip off him,’ one Burnham ally observed, ‘but it all went without a hitch. Job done.’

Mission accomplished, indeed. But that’s where the Prime Minister’s problems begin. Because his opening round of shuttle diplomacy with the West’s most controversial leader didn’t just go well. It went too well.

Within minutes of the pictures with Trump being broadcast, Leftist independent MP Zarah Sultana was taking to social media to tweet an image of a male skinhead licking someone else’s Dr Martens boot. And Rachel Millward, deputy leader of the Greens, stormed: ‘Don’t bow to Trump on North Sea oil.’

Burnham hadn’t actually tugged his forelock and responded to Trump’s long-standing entreaty ‘drill baby, drill’. Or acquainted himself with the President’s Florsheim leather dress shoes. But it didn’t matter. For the first time since he entered Downing Street, the PM’s ‘progressive’ opponents had spotted an opening.

Building a relationship with Britain’s most influential ally and maintaining the increasingly volatile ‘special relationship’ is one of the first duties of any prime minister. And at a time when Russia is poised to strike against Nato, the Middle East is aflame and the global economy is reeling from the aftershocks, there is even greater pressure on Andy Burnham to put aside his ideological differences and hold Uncle Sam close.

But the Left’s keffiyeh-clad rabble-rousers couldn’t care a jot about geopolitical realities. To them, Trump is more or less Satan. Anyone who so much as gives him the time of day is the devil’s handmaiden. And if it grants the opportunity to scream ‘betrayal’ at the current leader of the Labour Party, all the better.

Within Burnham’s inner circle there is an appreciation of the political and diplomatic tightrope he is having to walk. One made more precarious by Trump’s propensity suddenly to grab on to the line and start shaking it.

While No 10 officials took a certain schadenfreude from the President’s barbs at Keir Starmer – relations with the UK were ‘up’, he announced, ‘more now than they were with your last Prime Minister, let me put it that way’ – there is a recognition that they could soon be on the receiving end of them.

‘If we want to deliver on people’s priorities it’s important we retain our major strategic alliances,’ one official explained. ‘Defence is one obvious area. But also in terms of what we want to deliver on the economy.

‘But Andy is clear that those relationships have to be maintained on his terms. He won’t be changing his values. You could see in his discussion with Trump he wasn’t afraid to be clear on areas of difference, such as immigration and Israel.’

However warm the smalltalk between the two men, the reality is that in his dealings with Trump, Burnham is now trapped between two competing political realities. Britain’s national interest requires him to forge a good relationship with the White House. But his chosen electoral strategy dictates that he finds a spray can and daubs ‘Monster!’ on its gleaming walls.

‘I get it,’ one Labour MP in a marginal seat told me. ‘He can’t walk into the first meeting and slap Trump round the face. But the guy is toxic. Keir tried to dance to his tune and look how that worked out. Andy is going to have to find a way to stand up to him.’

Starmer essentially tried to define his premiership through his management of foreign affairs. Indeed, hard as it may be to remember now, there was a time when he was receiving regular plaudits for his performances on the world stage. For a time he even secured himself the moniker ‘The Trump Whisperer’.

Burnham looks on Starmer’s foreign policy strategy and believes he sees a cautionary tale. ‘Keir basically got seduced by the foreign trips,’ one Cabinet minister revealed. ‘He started to enjoy it too much. He was out there being feted as this great statesman, and he took his eye off the ball here at home. Andy saw that. And he isn’t going to make the same mistake.’

People roll their eyes whenever it’s mentioned, including within Government. But the ‘Makerfield Test’ – the idea that no major policy initiative can be signed off unless it aligns with the aspirations of Burnham’s North-West constituents – is fundamental to his masterplan. As is something else. A snap election.

In a couple of weeks, the voters go to the polls in Holborn and St Pancras. This is viewed across the Labour Party as the acid test of whether Burnham’s efforts at reuniting the Left and neutralising Zack Polanski and the Greens is working. And, if it is, it will provide the template for a general election tentatively being pencilled in for May next year.

Which in turn will necessitate some sort of crowd-pleasing fracture with Trump.

‘When Andy goes to the country there are two things he’s going to have to do,’ one supportive backbencher explained. ‘Prove he’s different to Keir, and throw some red meat to the Left. Standing up to Trump is the way to do that.’

How Burnham will make this stand is the subject of some debate within Downing Street. Some people see a possible confrontation with Trump’s social media ally Elon Musk. Others are advocating some more sharply drawn rhetoric over the President’s aggressive approach to immigration. There is additional talk of drawing some sort of line over Trump’s adventurism in Iran.

Whatever is proposed, the timing and extent of ‘the split’ is heavily dependent on the midterm elections in the US in November.

‘If Trump takes the hit, people will expect his influence to diminish,’ one Burnham ally predicted. ‘And that will start to give us the space to put some distance between us and Washington.’

Others within No 10 are concerned that a bad result could make Trump even more unpredictable. ‘If he sees his presidency is faltering, he could do anything,’ one Government insider warned. ‘He could lash out at anyone.’

Speculating about what Donald Trump will do in the next hour is futile enough. Trying to base a foreign and political strategy around what he will do come November is a mug’s game.

But one thing is certain. If Labour’s leader wants to win a snap election in which he unites the Left, he will not be able to do so with words of approval from MAGA’s supreme leader ringing in his ears.

Ignore the New York love-in. A damaging falling out between Donald Trump and Andy Burnham is coming.