Top Burnham adviser says Whitehall is too focused on the US – POLITICO

LONDON — A senior economist advising Andy Burnham as he prepares for No. 10 Downing Street has criticized the U.K.’s longstanding reliance on the U.S.

Jim O’Neill, who served as a Conservative Treasury minister from 2015 to 2016, said Whitehall is  “schooled in this view of life that whatever is going on, you always side with the U.S.”

The former chief economist at Goldman Sachs has been informally advising Burnham, who is expected to take over later this month as British prime minister, but told POLITICO he has not been offered a formal role.