Boris Refuses to Address Question on Biden’s Anti-Brexit Position

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson answers questions during a virtual press conference
LEON NEAL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

Boris Johnson refused to address a question on Joe Biden’s anti-Brexit position, but praised the prospect of “American global leadership in tackling climate change”.

After the media coronation, the British prime minister was eager to congratulate Joe Biden on his alleged victory, despite the results not being official, with vote counts ongoing and President Donald Trump declining to concede, alleging fraud.

Asked to remark on Biden having called Boris Johnson a “physical and emotional clone” of President Trump and for having claimed Brexit was a mistake, the prime minister sidestepped completely, telling The Times: “I think there is far more that unites the government of this country and the government in Washington at any time and any stage than divides us.”

He also told the newspaper that he “very much” looks forward to working with “President Biden” in “tackling climate change, trade, international security, many, many other issues”.

“With President Biden in the White House… we have the real prospect of American global leadership in tackling climate change,” Prime Minister Johnson said.

Mr Johnson’s former prime ministerial rival, Sajid Javid, also looks forward to partnering with the Democrat on tackling alleged man-made climate change and supporting the World Health Organization, claiming there was “far more” mutual interest between a notionally conservative British government and a potential Democratic Biden presidency than “there ever was with a Trump administration”.

Mr Javid, who had held such high positions in government as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary, mentioned that the UK was hosting an upcoming climate summit, telling Sky News on Sunday that “with a new leader in the White House, we’ll have someone who will want to work with us to bring about change”.

Figures on the British political left were fawning over Biden and his election “win”. However, the love appeared not to be reciprocated, with a recent interaction highlighting the hostility that Biden still holds for the UK. When the liberal British Broadcasting Corporation asked Biden for a “quick word” for its viewers, the leftist American politician smirked and responded: “The BBC? I’m Irish.”

In response, Reform Party leader Nigel Farage, who is a friend of President Trump, remarked: “As you can see from this clip, Biden hates the UK.”

Mr Farage went on to criticise the Conservative government for failing for four years to strike a trade deal with the U.S. under a “pro-UK President”, Trump, adding: “There is no chance now.”

In September, British politicians had criticised Biden for interfering in UK-EU Brexit negotiations after the Democratic presidential candidate threatened to scupper a U.S.-UK trade deal over a British law safeguarding the Union which Brexit critics perceived to be a threat to the Good Friday agreement.

Douglas Murray warned in an article for the Mail on Sunday that Biden and the Democrats are “no friends” of Britain.

Mr Murray remarked: “Joe Biden and the Democrat high command loathe Brexit Britain. They believe that the Brexit movement had something to do with the election of Donald Trump – acting as some kind of forerunner. They instinctively connect the two.

“And they also hold a contemptuous, furious and deeply anti-British attitude to everything to do with our future relationship.”

The author also drew attention to a recent Twitter post by Gerry Adams, the former head of Northern Ireland’s anti-British Sinn Fein, widely regarded as the political wing of the IRA. He had tweeted congratulations to the Democrat, sharing a picture from three years ago of himself, Biden, and Rita O’Hare, who had attempted to murder a British army officer in 1971.

“Mr Biden is proud of his own Irish roots, and you get a picture of where his sympathies lie in a photograph that emerged yesterday,” Mr Murray remarked.

“Much of the British public may be glad to see Trump leave the White House. But his exit will be a bad day. We will have lost a friend. At a time when we needed friends the most,” he concluded.

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