No go for BoJo: Team Biden shuns Boris Johnson

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has forged strong ties with Donald Trump, who trails Biden in US election polls

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says the Good Friday Agreement must be respected. AFP

Concerns are growing in the British government about the prospect of Joe Biden winning the US presidential election after it emerged none of the Democratic nominees’ foreign policy advisers had met UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s team.

Plans for pre-election talks with Mr Biden’s top foreign policy aide fell apart, with the former US vice-president choosing not to meet other governments during the run up to the vote on November 3. Mr Biden’s team is being cautious after widespread controversy about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election – which continues to dog current President Donald Trump – the Financial Times reported.

Mr Biden is leading Mr Trump in most national polls and has a narrow advantage in many key battlegrounds.

Mr Johnson has a good relationship with Mr Trump and the biggest fear is of a post-Brexit trade deal being derailed by a new president who was not supportive of the UK leaving the European Union.

Kim Darroch, the UK’s former ambassador to Washington, said recently that the prime minister would be Mr Trump’s best friend in Europe if he is re-elected, with the president’s support for Brexit raising hopes a quick trade deal could be agreed.

Mr Biden said last month that any Brexit deal must respect the Good Friday Agreement and ensure there is no hard border on the island of Ireland.

On Sunday, a senior British minister said the government would “absolutely protect and abide” by the Good Friday Agreement.

“We have always worked very closely with whoever is the president of the US. We as a country have a long, special relationship to build on, on a wide range of issues across history,” Brandon Lewis, Northern Ireland Secretary, told the BBC.

But Britain’s finance chief under former prime minister David Cameron has warned that a Biden administration could be hard work for the current UK government.

George Osborne said: “There’s no doubt that the Brexit government here will face a challenge with a Biden administration. Of course the US-UK alliance is long, enduring, it exists at many levels and there’s no doubt that a British prime minister will always be welcome in Washington. But Joe Biden … he knows the Brexiteers associated themselves with Trump.

“He knows they’re not his fellow travellers and they will find it hard to pivot, I think, towards a Biden administration and there’ll be some very specific things, like whether the UK does a trade deal with the US, where Joe Biden has already indicated that it’s going to be hard work for a British government,” he told CNN.