President-elect sticks the boot in early as Irish roots come to the fore

Joe Biden wasted no time putting the boot into Britain. During his campaign he promised a return to diplomatic niceties, and to be a supportive friend to US allies.

Instead, the day after he formally became president-elect, and nearly two months before he enters the Oval Office, he decided to take a swipe at one of America’s closest partners.

Britain can expect this to be an opening salvo from a newly engaged, but somewhat hectoring, ally across the Atlantic.

With global re-engagement will come a tendency to interfere, and to wield a diplomatic stick.

There is an argument that public utterances like this from Mr Biden are for domestic consumption in the US. He has a strong Irish-american lobby in Congress to satisfy, as does Nancy Pelosi, the speaker. The Good Friday

Agreement holds a special place in Democrat hearts due to the work of Bill Clinton.

But it seems more likely to be a signal of a re-emerging US willingness to put its oar into allies’ affairs.

Officials in capitals around the world welcomed the end of Donald Trump’s “America First” foreign policy.

But they will now have to deal with a US that, as it re-engages, will want something back, and won’t shy away from using its diplomatic megaphone.

Mr Biden has denied the next four years will be an “Obama third term” but already, on Brexit, he looks set to make the same mistake that Mr Obama did in trying to put his thumb on the scales in the 2016 referendum.

Obama era officials have since expressed surprise that the then US president failed to “move the needle” on Brexit. One of those officials was Tony Blinken, who will be Mr Biden’s secretary of state. Mr Blinken spoke recently about the dangers of “interfering in someone else’s politics” but there is no evidence he will shy away from doing so. He has a history of interventionism and it is unclear if the lessons of Mr Obama’s remarks on Brexit have been learnt.

Meanwhile, Mr Biden’s comments betrayed the strong personal feelings, and Irish roots, that colour his view of Brexit. He was always against it, continues to lament it, and he holds the ultimate leverage of a trade deal over the UK.

It is notable that Mr Biden’s remarks were made off the cuff as he left The Queen, a theatre in Wilmington, Delaware, where he set up base in his campaign and holds meetings.

He answers few questions, but when an Irish reporter shouted out, Mr Biden responded enthusiastically: “You can ask about Ireland all you want!”

The president-elect went on to give a much lengthier answer than he did on subsequent questions about the pandemic, or on when he would get his first intelligence briefing.

In Downing Street, they might prefer he concentrates on that.

‘His comments betrayed the strong personal feelings, and Irish roots, that colour Joe Biden’s view of Brexit’