‘Britain is better off with Biden’: Former chancellor backs Trump rival for President
Boris Johnson’s former chancellor has become the first Conservative MP to lend his name to a presidential candidate by publicly backing Joe Biden to become US President.
Sajid Javid today said “Britain is better off with Biden”, as he laid his case for the Democrat to take the reins from incumbent President Donald Trump while America prepares to head to the ballot boxes on 3 November.
Javid’s comments in the Daily Telegraph come as the UK scrambles to shore up relations with Biden, after the Democrat tipped ahead of his Republican rival in the polls earlier this month.
Ministers have been told to forge links with the White House frontrunner amid warnings that Trump is headed for a landslide defeat in next month’s election, the Times reported.
Johnson has previously boasted of his “special relationship” with Trump, who in turn has said he “adores” Britain and is keen to secure a UK-US trade deal ahead of the transition period deadline.
Biden, meanwhile, has publicly rebuked Johnson over Brexit, and joined speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in lashing out at the PM’s plans to rewrite the Withdrawal Agreement.
Biden tweeted last month: “Any trade deal between the US and UK must be contingent upon respect for the [Good Friday] Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period.”
In response, foreign secretary Dominic Raab jumped on a last-minute flight to meet with Pelosi and other congressional figures in a bid to split the bet between either outcome at the presidential election next month.
Javid played down the row over Brexit, saying concerns that Biden winning the presidency could sour Transatlantic relations were “overstated”.
Writing today, the former chancellor said: “Britain’s relationship with the US is bigger than our respective leaders, and a Biden administration would quickly realise that Boris isn’t the British Trump some claim him to be.”
Javid added: “It’s true that he may be more inclined to pass judgment on the nature of our departure from the EU, but that issue will be settled before any handover is complete, and will hardly be top of his in-tray.”