Panicking No 10 dumps Trump to woo Biden
British ministers have been told to forge links with the White House frontrunner Joe Biden after ‘writing off’ Donald Trump.
British ministers have been told to forge links with the White House frontrunner Joe Biden after “writing off” Donald Trump’s chances of re-election, amid fears that the UK could be left out in the cold if the former vice-president wins.
Boris Johnson has been warned that Trump is on course for a landslide defeat with his Democratic opponents set to land a historic “triple whammy” by seizing control of the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Private polling and computer models shown to No 10 last month put Biden’s chances of victory at more than 70 per cent. The challenger has since opened up a double-digit lead and one predictive model based on polling this weekend gave him an 85 per cent chance of winning, with the chances of a landslide better than one in three.
The UK prime minister spoke to the president last week, wishing him well for the election, despite an official decision not to take sides. But one senior Tory said: “They’re writing off Trump in No 10 now.”
Dominic Raab, the UK foreign secretary, recently visited America and met Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, and other congressional figures. He also talked to Chris Coons, described as “the Biden whisperer” in the Senate, as well as Richard Neal, a congressman seen as a power broker on Capitol Hill.
Karen Pierce, the British ambassador in Washington, is wooing Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s foreign policy advisers, who are tipped to be secretary of state and national security adviser.
Johnson’s team expect a bumpy ride if Biden wins. The presidential hopeful tweeted last month that he “can’t allow” any UK-US trade deal to proceed if Northern Ireland is “a casualty of Brexit”.
Problems also lie ahead if Trump stages a comeback. Woody Johnson, the US ambassador in London, has said America will slap tariffs on Scottish salmon if the UK does not accept US “chlorinated” chicken as part of a trade deal.
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