Hope fades for lone deal with America as Biden warns PM over Northern Ireland
JOE BIDEN last night issued a warning to Boris Johnson over the Northern Ireland Protocol as hopes faded of a UK-US trade deal.
During face-to-face talks in the Oval Office, the US President said that he believed “very strongly” in protections for peace in Northern Ireland.
The comment appeared to be a warning to the UK against ripping up the Protocol, which imposes custom checks on goods travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Asked about the possibility of a UK-US free trade deal, Mr Biden said: “We’re going to talk about trade a little bit today and we’re gonna have to work that through.”
The comments came before Mr Johnson and Mr Biden held private talks in what was the Prime Minister’s first visit to the White House since entering No 10 two years ago.
In a sign that UK hopes are fading fast for a free trade deal, government officials are now looking at other ways to boost transatlantic trade. One option would be joining the USMCA deal, which would see scores of tariffs dropped if the UK signs up. Another is striking smaller trade deals to which Mr Biden could be more open.
Mr Johnson yesterday declined to say that a US-UK free trade deal could be reached by the 2024 general election. UK government figures have given up hope of striking a deal next year.
The development is a stark admission of a changed trade strategy, given that for half a decade since the 2016 Brexit referendum a UK-US trade deal has been a key foreign policy goal.
A government insider said: “There are a variety of different ways to do this. The question is whether the US administration is ready. The ball is in the US’S court. It takes two to tango.”
Speaking in the Oval Office, Mr Biden and Mr Johnson talked up their shared love of trains, which the Prime Minister has said they previously bonded over.
But in a short series of questions, differences in policy were hinted at.
The Biden administration in recent months has urged Mr Johnson not to rip up the NI Protocol. Mr Biden said: “On the protocols, I feel very strongly on this. We spent an enormous amount of time and effort in the United States. It was a major bipartisan effort made.”
The Prime Minister earlier met Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, during which he praised the Biden administration’s lifting of the “curious” ban on UK beef.
On trade, it is understood that Liz Truss, the newly installed Foreign Secretary, pushed her US counterpart, Antony Blinken, for co-operation when they met this week for talks.
Ms Truss is said to have argued that the UK has deeper trade ties with Canada and Mexico and questioned whether such a situation was tenable. Mr Blinken’s response is unknown.
‘The question is whether the US administration is ready. The ball is in the US’S court. It takes two to tango’
BORIS JOHNSON has said for the first time that he has six children, joking during an interview with a US broadcaster that he “changes a lot of nappies”.
The Prime Minister has faced years of speculation about the number of children he has fathered and tends not to discuss the issue when asked.
But during a lengthy chat with NBC on a skyscraper overlooking New York, Mr Johnson went further than usual.
When the interviewer put to him that he had six children, the Prime Minister replied: “Yes.”
Mr Johnson has a one-year-old son, Wilfred, with his wife Carrie Johnson.
All three of them went to the G7 summit in Cornwall in June.
Mr Johnson has four children from his previous marriage to Marina Wheeler, his second wife. The pair announced their divorce in 2018 after 25 years of marriage.
The Prime Minister also has a daughter from his extramarital relationship with the journalist and art critic Helen Macintyre.
Mrs Johnson is also pregnant with the couple’s second child. It will be the Prime Minister’s seventh child.
Discussing fatherhood, Mr Johnson told NBC: “It’s fantastic. It’s fantastic. It’s a lot of work. I’ll tell you that much.
“But I love it. I absolutely love it. I change a lot of nappies in case anybody was wondering.”
There has been speculation for years about the exact number of children Mr Johnson has fathered.
Legal documents at one point hinted that he could have had a second child with Ms Macintyre, but they were not conclusive.
Mrs Johnson is the Prime Minister’s third wife. Mr Johnson did not have any children with his first wife, Allegra Mostyn-owen.
Mrs Johnson, who is two decades younger than Mr Johnson, was a former political adviser. She worked with numerous Tory cabinet ministers and as the party’s head of communications.
The couple’s second child is due to be born around Christmas. Both children will have been born during Mr Johnson’s time in Downing Street – a rarity in prime ministerial history.
In a post on Instagram announcing the news in July, Mrs Johnson revealed that she had suffered a miscarriage before becoming pregnant a second time. She wrote: “At the beginning of the year, I had a miscarriage which left me heartbroken. I feel incredibly blessed to be pregnant again but I’ve also felt like a bag of nerves.
“I found it a real comfort to hear from people who had also experienced loss, so I hope that in some very small way sharing this might help others too.”