By Cameron Marshall
With the USA Presidential Election results night fast approaching and a Biden win looking likely, it’s time for the UK to start speculating what the ‘special relationship’ would look like under a Biden administration. In reality, it is highly worrying.
Over the last year, the UK has enjoyed a renewal of the ‘special relationship’ with the USA thanks to President Trump and PM Johnson’s friendly personal relationship. Trump has regularly heaped praise on the PM, referring to him as a “terrific guy” and endorsing him in the run up to the 2019 General Election, whilst openly criticising Jeremy Corbyn.
It’s no secret that Trump has also openly supported the UK’s exit from the EU, wanting to bring the UK closer to America and further from Europe. Indeed, the USA is a vital piece in the Brexit jigsaw. Under Trump, negotiating teams from the USA are already on to the fourth round of negotiations with our negotiating teams to try and secure a close post-Brexit trade deal next year, and both nations are working as fast as possible to achieve an FTA that is of ultimate importance to this nation. There is no doubt in my mind that this deal is the absolute core of our post-Brexit trade and that the UK would be far worse off without it.
Unfortunately, a Biden administration would present a big issue for the UK. Unlike Trump, he is not so keen on our nation or our leader. The Democratic challenger last year described PM Johnson as a “kind of physical and emotional clone of the president”, who he openly despises. This is not good news for the UK, and also shows Biden’s naïvety and lack of understanding in his approach to current British politics because Johnson is by no means alike to Trump. Whereas Johnson is a liberal centre-right conservative, Trump is essentially a nationalist and a narcissist.
On the UK-US trade deal, Biden has said he “will not 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.” The UK government has been clear that the Good Friday Agreement will not be compromised under any circumstances, yet despite this guarantee, Biden has gone on to say the UK will be “back of the queue” for a trade deal with his nation. Instead, he favours Berlin over London and has often said that he considers the relationship between the US and Germany to be ‘special’, rather than the relationship between the US and the UK.
With Biden leading in the polls, it’s probably starting to worry government officials here in the UK that they may have sided with the wrong man. If Biden is elected President, it is likely that the UK-US relationship will be severely weakened, perhaps even crippled, but there is one potential very narrow ray of light that comes from Trump’s former National Security Advisor, John Bolton. He has stated that PM Johnson has been “playing Trump like a fiddle” and it is well known that Boris has been a charming persuader to many foreign leaders in the past so perhaps he can do the same with Biden. That’s definitely clutching at straws though, and so the future of a relationship that is so vital to this country’s next few years is in the hands of the American people. That doesn’t feel so good.
The US election special is out saturday 7:00pm
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