Despite his concerns with Downing Street, Joe Biden will work with Boris Johnson and the British government if elected president in November, according to a potential administration official.
Former Bernie Sanders adviser Robert Hockett – who is believed among some Democratic circles to be elevated to a government position by Biden as a bone throw to the party's left-wing – told City A.M. on Wednesday that Biden would be resentful of Johnson for his historic closeness to the Trump administration.
Hockett, who helped author Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s Green New Deal, dubbed Biden an old school Washington pragmatist who understands that Johnson is “an opportunist” first and foremost.
“Biden’s status as an old time ‘pol’, as we call them in the States, is maybe going to work to his advantage and to the advantage of transatlantic relationships and the whole special relationship between the UK and US”, he said.
Hocket said that a characteristic of this "old-style American politician is conveying a sense of friendliness and personal warmth" which is not "just opportunistically pretending, but just kind of being an all hail well-met sort of fellow".
“My guess is Mr Johnson immediately is all over Mr Biden like a dirty shirt and that Mr Biden will be perfectly fine with that, because he knows how politics works and his team will be fine with it too", he predicted.
Many have claimed that the UK-US trade deal currently in the works might come to an end if a Democratic administration takes office following claims by House Leader Nancy Pelosi that they would not support any agreement that violated the Good Friday Agreement.
Former Conservative chancellor George Osborne said this week that the British government would find it difficult "to pivot towards a Biden administration”.
“There’ll be some very specific things like whether the UK does a trade deal with the US, where Joe Biden has already indicated and people like Nancy Pelosi have indicated that is going to be hard work for the British government”, he said.
“So there’s a lot of frantic repositioning going on at the moment here in London by this administration in Britain."
Recent UK media reports claim that there is internal concern within Downing Street that a Biden administration would not be as cordial to Johnson and his front bench.
The prime minister and President Trump have developed a close relationship in recent years and are viewed as having similar political leanings, namely due to Johnson's spearheading of the Brexit campaign in 2016.
In 2016, Boris Johnson controversially suggested that Barack Obama opposed the UK's withdrawal from the EU due to “the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British empire”.
However, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and British ambassador to the US Dame Karen Pierce have held meetings with top Democrats in recent weeks in an attempt to soften relations should Biden win the election next week.
