Farage Warns Potential Biden Presidency Would Ransom Brexit Deal Against How Low UK Can Bow to EU

Europe - US Vice President Joe Biden speaks while meeting with European Union President on
EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has criticised the Conservative government for failing to prioritise agreeing on a trade deal with the United States, warning that with the threat of a possible Joe Biden presidency, the UK has “played ourselves into checkmate”, stuck between an emboldened Brussels and a Democrat who “hates” Britain.

When Biden declined to comment to the British Broadcasting Corporation following his media coronation as president, Mr Farage warned that the Democrat’s reply — “The BBC? I’m Irish.” — was a foreboding of Anglo-American relations to come.

“Biden hates the UK. The Conservatives had four years to do a trade deal with the USA and [a] pro-UK President, and they failed. There is no chance now,” Mr Farage had said on the weekend.

The Brexit leader elaborated in an address to supporters on YouTube on Monday that the European Union will use the current uncertainty and hostility, a legacy from the Obama era, to leverage UK surrender in negotiations in a trade deal. Further, if there is a Biden presidency, a U.S. deal would be granted only if Brussels receives favourable terms in its agreement.

“This is going to make a massive difference to Brexit,” Farage said.

Remarking that the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier is “in a very much stronger position than he was this time last week”, he said: “Under the Tories, we had four years of dither. Four years on, and we still haven’t got Brexit completed and now we find that unless we jump as high as Monsieur Barnier wants us, we won’t be having good relations or a trade deal with the most powerful country in the world.”

Indeed, as Barnier returned to London on Monday to resume talks he clearly telegraphed to watchers that the European Union’s negotiating position — that Britain would remain tied to European laws, standards, and courts — had not shifted.

“What we’ve done through indecision and dither is effectively played ourself into checkmate, locked in the middle of the Atlantic. We’re not going to have a friend on either side of it unless Boris gives in on the level playing field, gives in on fisheries, and gives in on a whole host of other areas,” Farage said.

The Reform UK leader explained that not only does Biden think that Brexit is a mistake, but he “thinks the European Union is a great thing”.

“Even more importantly, Biden is an Irish nationalist. Not content with just campaigning for Gerry Adams to go to America, back in the early 90s, he was even photographed with Gerry Adams in 2017, and the third person in the picture was an IRA fugitive. A woman [Rita O’Hare] who was arrested and imprisoned for attempting to murder a British army officer in the 1970s and she escaped, and she’s been on the run ever since.”

U.S. Democrats, including Biden and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, have threatened to block a trade deal with the UK if the British Parliament passed a law aimed at protecting the Union, stopping a customs barrier between British Northern Ireland and Great Britain, claiming that such an arrangement would threaten a ‘hard border’ on the isle of Ireland between NI and the EU’s Republic of Ireland, invalidating the Belfast (Good Friday) agreement.

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