With Biden now set to become the 46th President of the United States, what does that mean for the UK? Will the special relationship between the two countries continue, and what does his win mean for things like Brexit, and a UK-US trade deal?
Personal Relationship
Boris Johnson and Joe Biden have never met each other. This is significant, as they have not had chance to build up a personal rapport.
It is unlikely that either will get along in a personal sense. Both Harris and Biden remember Johnson making what they perceived to be a racist comment against Obama. This will no doubt be remembered.
Johnson’s previous relationship to Donald Trump might cause problems. Donald Trump previously called Johnson “Britain Trump”. The two were seen as having a close relationship.
Biden himself likened the Prime Minister to Trump, when he said just after Johnson won the 2019 UK election that he is a “physical and emotional clone” of Trump.
The Biden team do not have a good opinion of Johnson’s key aide Dominic Cummings either. They view Cummings like Steve Bannon, an alt-right strategist to Trump.
Johnson insists that there was more than united the two countries that divided them, and that “we have common values, we have common interests, we have a common global perspective.”
Brexit and a Trade Deal
During 2016, Joe Biden, like Obama, was against Brexit. He stresses his Irish heritage, which could also be a sticking point for negotiations there.
The controversial Internal Market Bill could pose a problems for a good relationship between the UK and US.
Biden tweeted in response to this bill, “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.”
This sentiment is shared across the Democrat party, with Nancy Pelosi saying there would be “no chance” of a UK-US deal should the Good Friday Agreement be threatened.
A UK-US trade deal may have fallen down the list of priorities in the US, as Biden seeks to re-instate the US into the global institutions that Trump left. Biden would prefer to expand relations with the European Union than London.
Focused on similar issues?
Apart from Brexit, to appears that Biden and Johnson agree on other key issues.
A key one is Climate Change. Biden and his team have made climate change one of their key policy concerns and this could be beneficial to the UK. The UK will hold the 26th COP climate conference in 2021. Climate change is a policy area that Biden is a keen supporter of, wanting to follow the UK’s carbon neutral commitment amid other key pledges.
Another is foreign policy. The UK is about to become president of both the G7 and the UN presidency. This fits with Biden’s more internationalist and diplomatic outlook, as well as the UK being a supporter of the Iran Nuclear Deal that Biden seeks to re-join. The UK is likely to stress its work on the international vaccine project COVAX, as Biden re-joins the WHO.
Finally, there is security. The UK fulfils its 2 per cent defence spending commitment, which is likely to please Biden. He wants to repair the damage that Trump did to the organisation, in which the UK can play a major role in. Biden wants to co-operate with his international allies in order to combat threats such as Russia and China, which is a shared concern with the UK.
Other Figures Thoughts
Politicians and senior figures from both the UK and US have mixed views on how a Biden administration will get on with the UK.
Chris Coons, Democrat Senator for Delaware, key ally of Biden, and potential Secretary of State said the UK and US share a number of key policy concerns like climate change, privacy and security. He also stressed the UK and US had a lot to do “together”. He also said that Johnson “struck me as someone who is more agile, engaging, educated and forward thinking than perhaps the caricature of him in the American press”. On the past comments on Obama, Coons mentioned that they weren’t well received however, it’s important to have an open mind rather than relitigate comments made days or years ago.
Former Chancellor Sajid Javid wrote a piece where he said that a Biden presidency would be better for the UK than re-election for Donald Trump. In it, he says that our relationship is bigger than our leaders, and that Biden will quickly see Johnson isn’t a British version of Trump as some claim him to be.
“When it comes to policy, Biden will find he has more in common with the Johnson government than Trump ever did.”
Tim Vietor, a former Obama press aide, called Johnson a “shapeshifting creep” and that “we will never forget your racist comments about Obama and slavish devotion to Trump”.
Former UK Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind said a serious disagreement between Johnson and Biden would not completely derail the relationship.
He went onto say “If the U.K. is not the U.S.’s closest global ally, who is? It can’t be Germany because Germany, while much more important on economic issues, has no military capability, no intelligence excellence of the kind we have in the Five Eyes agreement … It can’t be France; all French presidents since De Gaulle have tried to distance themselves from the U.S. and say that America must not become too involved in European affairs. Biden knows all that.”
It is clear that a Biden Presidency poses challenges for Johnson and the relationship between the two countries. Especially in the short term. However, there is reason to remain optimistic that in the long term the strong relationship between the UK and US will remain, and deepen.
By Kieran Burt
Featured image: Gage Skidmore on Flickr