BoJo and Biden - Is the British-American Relationship Changing for Better or Worse?
Morgan Fox, Online Staff Writer
February 19, 2021
With a new and very different President installed in the White House, it’s no wonder that many are paying close attention to any signals directed towards Downing Street.
Modern British and American leaders have always made a distinct point of highlighting the British-American ‘special relationship’ - the unofficial term for the numerous shared political, economic, cultural, military, and historical values between the two countries. But the ‘special relationship’ is looking more uncertain than it ever has in recent years. Boris Johnson and Joe Biden are very different, from both political and personal perspectives, especially considering the general perception that Boris and Brexit are ‘Britain’s Trump’. With this in mind, the new-ish leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, might just have an opportunity to foster a relationship with Biden.
The beginning of a relationship between Johnson and Biden can be traced back to 2016, during the Brexit campaign and Boris Johnson’s tenure as Mayor of London. Following President Obama’s statement that the UK would be not be first in line for a US-UK trade deal, Johnson was quoted stating that Obama’s “part-Kenyan heritage had driven him towards anti-British sentiment.” This dog-whistle statement has not been forgotten by top Democrats in Washington. Furthermore, Johnson has fostered a friendly relationship with Donald Trump over the past few years, first as Foreign Secretary and later as Prime Minister. Last year, Trump described Johnson as a friend of his, as well as sharp, energetic, and “pretty incredible”. Despite the many comparisons between the two as conservative populists, Johnson was also quoted in 2015 stating that Trump has a “stupefying ignorance that makes him unfit to hold the office of president.” All things considered, it’s no surprise that the Biden team has an image of Johnson as opportunistic and untrustworthy, with one ally describing him as a “two-faced creep”.
Aside from their differences in temperament, there are also key political disagreements between them - notably Brexit. Biden, like Obama, considers Brexit to be an act of self-sabotage and isolation, which damages the UK, as well as America’s interests in Europe. Since the UK can no longer act as the primary link between the United States and the European Union, they have suddenly lost much of their importance in the ‘special relationship’. It is very likely that France will host President Biden’s first visit to Europe, which the UK has traditionally done. Now that Trump is out of office, a speedy US-UK trade deal looks unlikely - something Boris was counting on with the economic effects of Brexit on the horizon. Beyond Biden’s strategic opposition to Brexit, he is also a proud Irish-American, and is adamant that the Good Friday Agreement cannot be jeopardized by Brexit, which would threaten the return of violence in Northern Ireland. More than anything else, Biden will not support a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. Despite all this, Johnson has argued that he and Biden have much in common, first and foremost their stances on COVID-19 and climate change, but it’s uncertain if that will be enough.
Johnson is stuck between a metaphorical rock and a hard place. He won a shockingly huge majority in December 2019 by arguing that he would finally be able to get Brexit done after several years of negotiations. This strategy gained him a large number of votes from people who typically voted Labour, while maintaining traditional Conservative voters, and managing to regain people who had recently voted for far-right parties such as UKIP and the Brexit party. This is a broad coalition, but they have many different demands, and thus far, he has failed to meet many of them. A strong ‘special relationship’ would be important in getting a trade deal done that would help accomplish some of the campaign promises he made.
Following the Labour Party’s catastrophic defeat in the 2019 election - the party’s worst result since 1935 - Sir Keir Starmer became the new leader last April. A former human rights lawyer and Director of Public Prosecutions, Starmer earned a knighthood for work around abolishing the death penalty globally. He is calm, personable, and has so far been applauded for his incisive criticism of Johnson during the weekly Prime Minister's Questions. In other words, there is much about him that should worry Boris Johnson, among them the many similarities he shares with President Biden. Starmer has described himself as pro-American and anti-Trump, and has stated that he is “incredibly optimistic about the new relationship we can build” with the United States. Both politicians are members of the centre-left, and it appears that Starmer hopes to replicate Biden’s strategy of a ‘broad coalition’, focused on family, community, and security in the next election. While the two have yet to meet, there are many parallels to draw between the two, and Starmer is eager to use the example of Joe Biden to show that an era of steady, assured leadership is beginning, with the two of them at the forefront.
It’s important to note that another election is not scheduled until the end of 2024, but, in the past five years, there have been three major leadership contests, two general elections, and a historic referendum - none of which were supposed to happen. It is a chaotic time in British politics, and it is very possible that there will be another general election before December 2024. The status of the ‘special relationship’ will be an important factor in determining if that happens, and how it goes. On the one hand, Johnson may be unable to woo President Biden, a successful trade deal will not materialize, and the economic effects of Brexit will harm the people Johnson promised it wouldn’t. Interestingly, a recent poll showed that most Brits would vote for Joe Biden over Donald Trump. But Boris Johnson has become renowned for his political comebacks, and despite the horrific COVID-19 death toll in the United Kingdom, the large-scale vaccine rollout has recently placed the Conservatives back in the lead in some opinion polls. It is impossible to know for sure, but it is certain that the recently-inaugurated Biden will be a defining factor in British politics over the next four years.