Boris Johnson defied Joe Biden today by vowing to reverse a possible defeat in Parliament over the Brexit laws that the next US President has branded a threat to peace in Northern Ireland.
Despite the President-elect having personally fired a warning shot at Britain about the issue, a senior Cabinet minister announced that the Government will reinstate any key clauses to the Internal Market Bill, which critics say flout international law.
Mr Johnson did not receive a phone call from the next leader of the free world overnight, No10 sources told the Standard, and was not expecting one today.
There has been speculation that the Prime Minister may have to wait in turn behind European Union leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.
An official made clear that the PM’s circle was relaxed about the timing of a phone call, saying: “I think this is one you’ll all be much more excited about than we are.”
London’s stock market rose again on opening this morning in response to Mr Biden’s victory being widely accepted, including by Republican former President George W Bush. Mr Trump, however, is refusing to concede defeat.
Mr Biden was getting down to work on his plans to take over the White House, and was reportedly preparing a series of executive orders to reverse Trump decisions, such as leaving the Paris climate change agreement.
The first test of his relations with the UK could come after a series of votes this afternoon in the House of Lords, designed to remove clauses from the Internal Market Bill.
Environment Secretary George Eustice said the Government would use its muscle in the Commons to reinstate any clauses stripped out by peers. Mr Eustice insisted on Sky News that the Bill did not endanger peace in Northern Ireland.
“The UK Internal Market Bill is not about undermining the Belfast Agreement, it’s about standing behind it, making sure that it works and looking after the interests of Northern Ireland, making sure the peace and stability that’s been hard won there can carry on,” he said.
Mr Eustice sought to reassure Mr Biden that there would be no need for a hard border. “All of that work is being done and because that work is being done there will be no need for checks on the Northern Ireland border,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The Government has admitted the Bill gives it powers to break international law in a “very specific and limited way”. That admission prompted Mr Biden to warn at the height of his election campaign that a trade deal with the US was “contingent” on preventing any return to a hard border through the island of Ireland.
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Former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said the UK could “struggle for relevance” under a Biden presidency.
“Joe Biden is immensely proud of his Irish roots — he did it publicly in his speech (after being announced President-elect), he does it privately as well — quotes Seamus Heaney at the drop of a hat,” he said.
Speaking to the BBC’s Westminster Hour, Mr Clegg predicted that Mr Biden and the Prime Minister would be “able to strike up a personal relationship” but warned Mr Johnson about the way Brexit would be viewed through an Irish lens in future in the Oval Office.
Mr Johnson, speaking yesterday, congratulated Mr Biden, whom he has not met, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as he made the first advances to woo the new administration, which will be inaugurated in January.
The Prime Minister told broadcasters there was “far more that unites” than divides Britain and the US, saying: “The United States is our closest and most important ally, and that has been the case president after president, prime minister after prime minister — it won’t change.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer stepped into the row with a call for the Bill to be scrapped. “He [Biden], like governments across the world, will take a dim view if our Prime Minister ploughs ahead with proposals to undermine that [Good Friday] agreement,” he wrote in the Guardian.
Later he told LBC: “I think [Biden] brings a degree of clarity on Brexit because he’s very strong on the Good Friday Agreement and I think as we go into the final few days of the negotiation, just a bit of focus on that might help both sides because we do want a deal and I think a deal is possible.” He added that Mr Biden would want to do a trade deal with the UK.
