Camilla TOMINEY
The revelation that neither Boris Johnson nor Dominic Raab has ever met Joe Biden suggests there will be much work to do on the special relationship should the Democratic favourite end up becoming the next US president. For it isn’t just the American electorate being held in limbo as the count continues across the pond, but also a No 10 administration that has so far made few inroads into the 77-year-old former vice-president’s camp.
The Foreign Secretary yesterday said he was “very confident” based on conversations he has had with “leading” Democrats that UK relations with the US “will go to even greater heights in the months and years ahead”, should the result swing their way.
“We have good contacts,” he insisted. Although he travelled to Washington in September for meetings with House speaker Nancy Pelosi, senator Chris Coons, and foreign policy advisers Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan in recent months, a face to face with Mr Biden has so far eluded him.
A No 10 spokesman yesterday admitted that the Prime Minister hadn’t met him either – although “back room chats” are understood to have taken place ever since the polls began to indicate that the US may “go blue”. Meanwhile, Mr Biden’s advisers have reached out to Tory MPS, including Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, and New York-born chairman of the defence select committee Tobias Ellwood, who has dual citizenship.
Relations with the US have perhaps not been helped by the UK’S Ambassador to the US, Karen Pierce, only being installed in February – a month before Britain went into lockdown.
The timing of the pandemic certainly could not have been worse for transatlantic diplomacy. Without Covid, President Trump would most likely have romped comfortably home to a second term in the White House.
Instead, at a crucial moment in the Brexit negotiations, with the future of a US trade deal hanging in the balance, No 10 is facing the very real prospect of having to reset the special relationship with a Europhile who would prefer to be more intimate with Brussels than Britain.
In an echo of Barack Obama’s “back of the queue” moment, ahead of the 2016 EU referendum, the former senator was quick to pour scorn on Mr Johnson’s attempt to overturn parts of the Withdrawal Agreement with the Internal Markets Bill in September.
He tweeted: “We can’t allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit.
“Any trade deal between the US and UK must be contingent upon respect for the Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period.”
On the face of it, four more years of Mr Trump would appear to make life considerably easier for No 10.
As an Anglophile admirer of Mr Johnson who has made no secret of his mistrust of the EU and superpowers like China, it is arguably in the “America First” president’s interests to help the UK maintain its international standing.
Yet as evidenced by his criticism of the Government’s stance on Huawei,
‘Whatever the outcome, it seems highly like the prime ministerial plane is already being prepped for take-off’
he remains a loose cannon and somewhat unreliable ally. The man who famously penned The Art of the Deal is also likely to drive a very hard bargain on the chlorinated chicken British voters appear to have little appetite for.
A Biden win would not only bring an end to the politically problematic labelling of Mr Johnson as “Britain Trump” but might even provide a simple solution to Britain’s post-brexit trade problem.
Unlike his Republican rival, the Democrat wants to join the Pacific free trade area, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for TransPacific Partnership, which if the UK joined, too, would negate the need for a bilateral agreement.
Whatever the outcome of the US election, it seems highly likely the prime ministerial plane is already being prepped for take-off.