Johnson: ‘Far more unites UK and US than divides us’
Boris Johnson was set to get in touch with US president-elect Joe Biden last night after laying out the case for a close UK alliance with the new administration.
“The United States is our close stand most important ally, and that has been the case president after president, prime minister after prime minister – it won’t change,” the Prime Minister said yesterday.
“I look forward very much to working with president Biden and his team on a lot of crucial stuff for us in the weeks and months ahead: tackling cli - mate change, trade, international security, many, many other issues.”
It came after Foreign Secretary Dominic Ra abs aid he expected the Prime Minister to phone Mr Biden “shortly”.
It comes after reports that Mr Johnson is “war-gaming” his first conversation with the next incumbent of the Oval Office as he prepares to offer to build a coalition with the US to tackle climate change and join up on their shared mantra to “build back better” after coronavirus.
Mr Johnson is said to have joked with D owning Street officials that Mr Biden was “one of the few world leaders I haven’t insulted”.
There could be work to do for Number 10 to prepare the relationship, however, after an aide of former president Barack Obama labelled the Prime Minister a “shapeshifting creep” following Mr Johnson’s congratulatory tweet on Saturday.
Tommy Vietor, referencing Mr Johnson’s previous suggestion Mr Ob am a’ s“partKenya n heritage” was behind his“ancestral dislike of the British empire”, said: “We will never forget your racist comments about Obama and slavish devotion to Trump.”
Mr Johnson has not met Mr Biden – a point commentators suggested ex-prime minister Theresa May was alluding to when she tweeted a photograph of her and the longserving politician–and in December 2019, the election victor labelled the Prime Minister a “physical and emotional clone” of Mr Trump.
But Mr Johnson said there was “far more that unites” the UK and the US than divides when asked about the Democratic candidate’ s negative comments about him.
“I think there is far more that unites the government of this country and governments in Washington at any time and any stage than divides us,” he said. “We have common values, we have common interests, we have common global perspective.”
Taking questions on whether Mr Biden’s win would put the chances of a US-UK trade deal at risk, the Prime Minister said he knew Washington had “tough negotiators” and that he“never believed this was going to be something that was going to be a complete pushover under any US administration”.
“I think there is a good chance we'll do something,” he added.
Sir David Manning, a former British ambassador to the US, said Mr Biden “values the bilateral relationship” and said a strong relationship with Mr Johnson “should be possible” given the common interests between the long-standing allies.
Meanwhile, Mr R aab said that“in principle, yes, of course” all votes should be counted in a democratic election, having failed to make such a statement when Mr Trump had been calling for
states to stop counting mailin ballots last week.
Defending his own congratulatory tweet for saying there were “processes still playing out”, the former Brexit secretary said it was “right to tread carefully and sensitively” after a fraught election but stated there had b een a “definitive result”.