Johnson says he is ‘not going to disagree’ with Biden at their first meeting

The issue has threatened to overshadow Johnson’s first meeting with the president and his hosting of the G7 summit, which begins on Friday in Carbis Bay.

Ahead of the meeting, Biden said he was looking forward to “affirming the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom” – despite Johnson’s dislike of the term to describe the transatlantic partnership because he believes it makes Britain look needy.

The two leaders and their wives – Carrie Johnson and Jill Biden – admired the view over Carbis Bay before their meeting.

Biden said: “I told the prime minister we have something in common. We both married way above our stations.”

Johnson responded: “I’m not going to dissent on that one. I’m not going to disagree with you there or indeed on anything else, I think highly likely.”

Aside from Brexit, Johnson and Biden will work on efforts to resume transatlantic travel and agree a new Atlantic Charter paving the way for co-operation on challenges including climate change and security.

But Biden, who takes pride in his Irish roots, will also raise the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which will feature heavily in discussions with the UK and European Union over the coming days of intense diplomatic activity in Cornwall.

The scale of Biden’s unease about the UK’s approach to the Protocol was revealed in a leaked memo which showed the president took the extraordinary step of ordering the United States’ most senior diplomat in London, Yael Lempert, to deliver a demarche – a formal protest – in a meeting with Brexit minister Lord Frost on June 3.

The Times newspaper reported that government minutes of the meeting said: “Lempert implied that the UK had been inflaming the rhetoric, by asking if he would keep it ‘cool’.”

The US charge d’affaires indicated that if Johnson accepted demands to follow EU rules on agricultural standards, Biden would ensure it would not “negatively affect the chances of reaching a US/UK free trade deal”.

Downing Street did not deny the encounter took place. A No 10 spokesman said: “I don’t think you would expect me to get into discussions with other countries.”

The spokesman added that the Government would continue to seek to work “consensually” with the EU to resolve the impasse.

Talks between Brexit minister Lord Frost and the European Commission’s Maros Sefcovic on Wednesday failed to make a breakthrough on the Protocol.

The EU has threatened to launch a trade war against Britain if it fails to implement checks on goods entering Northern Ireland under the terms of the Brexit “divorce” settlement which Johnson signed.

The prospect of a “sausage war” trade dispute came after Lord Frost refused to rule out the possibility that the UK could unilaterally delay imposing checks on British-made chilled meats which are due to come into force at the end of the month.

At a press conference in Brussels on Thursday ahead of the G7 summit, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen again insisted the Protocol is the “only solution” to prevent a hard border with the Republic and must be implemented in full.

“We have shown flexibility, we will show flexibility, but the Protocol and the (Brexit) Withdrawal Agreement have to be implemented completely,” she said.

Johnson said co-operation between the UK and US – “the closest of partners and the greatest of allies” – will be crucial “for the future of the world’s stability and prosperity”.

The two leaders have also agreed a new joint taskforce will examine how to resume travel between the US and UK, which ground to a halt as the pandemic hit.