Joe Biden

A picture of Boris Johnson on the phone to US president Joe Biden has caused a stir online after social media users spotted something odd. Johnson was the first European leader to speak with the new US president over the weekend. The pair discussed strengthening the transatlantic relationship, the critical role of NATO, and joked about […]

Labour’s Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson’s government of a “very foolish gamble” with hoping that Donald Trump would sign up to a post-Brexit “mini” trade deal before his exit. Tariffs of £5.6 billion were imposed by former president Trump’s administration in retaliation for state support given to Airbus, with products including Scotch whisky badly affected […]

Downing Street has declined to criticise Joe Biden for removing a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office, despite Boris Johnson’s previous attack on Barack Obama for the same move. The prime minister said in much-criticised comments in 2016 that Obama removing the sculpture “was a symbol of the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike […]

EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said Joe Biden’s inauguration represents a new chapter in transatlantic cooperation, adding that Europe finally “has a friend in the White House”. Von der Leyen said that “after four long years”, Europe could now breath a sigh of relief and begin patching up an alliance that came […]

Boris Johnson has declared “there’s nothing wrong with being woke”. The prime minister was asked if he considered Biden to be woke – defined as being alert to societal injustices – after Labour’s Lisa Nandy praised Joe Biden as a “woke guy” who is a possible model for electoral success for the Labour Party. “I can’t […]

The US has entered the post-Trump era. But don’t expect things to get much smoother, says JAMES BALL If the last few years had been a movie, then Wednesday of this week would surely be the last, triumphant scene. Yes, the bad guys had been winning for most of the running time – and the pandemic gave us […]

Nicola Sturgeon has given Donald Trump the “perfect” farewell message. Speaking ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration, the Scottish first minister congratulated the president-elect and his running mate Kamala Harris. During First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament the Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie repeated his calls for Trump’s business interests in Scotland to be investigated under an […]

Boris Johnson has said he will work ‘hand in hand’ with Joe Biden after he takes office. The government hopes Biden’s inauguration as US president will mark the start of a new political era following the turbulence of Donald Trump’s administration. The UK’s ambassador to the US, Dame Karen Pierce, said there was “a lot […]

The highest death toll from coronavirus in the world and an economic fallout leaving millions jobless has compounded the turmoil of a bitterly-divided nation where democracy itself at times seemed in jeopardy. It falls to Joe Biden to begin a repair job on a gargantuan scale when he enters the White House as the 46th […]

The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States marks the opening of a new chapter in the Anglo-American relationship – raising fresh questions as to whether it remains as “special” as it once was. For Boris Johnson the pressure is on to establish good working relations with the new occupant […]

The former head of the UK’s civil service has claimed that Boris Johnson will be “relieved” to see the back of Donald Trump as US president. Lord Sedwill, who served as cabinet secretary from 2018 to 2020, wrote in the Daily Mail that another term for Trump “would not have been to the benefit of […]

The Donald Trump baby blimp has been “consigned to history” – at a museum. The huge inflatable depicts the US president in a nappy and clutching a mobile phone. It took to the skies, above Parliament Square, during protests over Trump’s state visit to the UK. The Museum of London announced in 2019 that it […]

The UK would be “lucky” to strike a trade deal with Washington in Joe Biden’s first term as president, the former UK ambassador to the US has said. Ahead of Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, Lord (Kim) Darroch, who was forced to quit in 2019 after frank diplomatic cables referring to current President Donald Trump were […]

Donald Trump will not be visiting Scotland ahead of inauguration day, it has been reported. There had been speculation that the US president would visit his Turnberry golf resort in South Ayrshire ahead of Joe Biden taking office at the White House next Wednesday. But now PA reports that Trump will not be in Scotland. As […]

Countries around the world are facing remarkably similar problems, yet several different approaches have emerged in how to tackle them. This year will a crucial one in the tussle between them. JOHN KAMPFNER reports. Was there a year as bad as 2020? Not in my lifetime, but I have not lived through a war. Perhaps […]

Former White House adviser Anthony Scaramucci has said “another insurrection” like the one witnessed on Capitol Hill last Wednesday could occur before Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20. Scaramucci, who was a former White House communications director to president Trump, said rioters were planning a second protest on January 17. This comes after thousands of […]

The UK will have to “fight its way to the table” as US-president elect Joe Biden seeks to rebuild American relations around the world, according to a study. With MPs set to debate Britain’s future foreign policy in the Commons on Monday afternoon, a new research paper by Robin Niblett, director of the think tank […]

US president-elect Joe Biden has addressed citizens amid the storming of Congress by Donald Trump protesters. In an address to the nation, Biden, who was set to be certified as the incoming US president by Congress on Wednesday said: “Let me be very clear, the scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true […]

A set of elections in the southern state next week will shape the future of America. ALBERT SCARDINO explains why Georgia has always been the fulcrum on which the country turns. The race to control the national government in America approaches another mile marker next week with runoff elections in Georgia for two seats in […]

Joe Biden has ruled out prioritising signing trade deals when he enters office in January – in a snub to Boris Johnson’s Brexit Britain. Biden looks set to take a similar ‘America First’ approach to the economy as his predecessor Donald Trump. The 78-year-old Democrat politician told the New York Times: “I’m not going to […]

Donald Trump is looking to secure a series of ‘mini’ Brexit trade deals with the UK, his trade chief has claimed. Trade representative Robert Lighthizer suggested that the US and UK could agree deals which reduce tariffs on items such as Scotch whisky if a pact is successful. The government hopes to broker a full free trade […]

President-elect Joe Biden has become more popular than Donald Trump ever was during his presidency, a new CNN Gallup poll has found. Biden received a 55pc approval rating, having jumped six percentage points since the election, while Trump shrunk to 42pc, down three points since November 3. Trump’s highest rating was 50pc in a Bloomberg […]

BONNIE GREER on the breath of fresh air that Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state represents. President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, speaks French. This is not unusual for many who join the foreign service of the United States. Former senator and presidential candidate, John Kerry – Barack Obama’s foreign secretary – […]

Joe Biden will be an infinitely tougher prospect for Vladimir Putin than Donald Trump. Yet the Russian president still has time on his side, says JOHN KAMPFNER. George W Bush, not a man commonly thought of as soft, said this of Vladimir Putin at their first meeting in 2001: “I looked the man in the […]

The European Union is proposing a new transatlantic alliance with Joe Biden’s America to repair their strained relationship caused by Donald Trump’s presidency. A draft report sights China’s “growing international assertiveness” as a challenge that needs both the EU and US to work together, even if they “do not always agree” on how to address it. […]

UK aviation officials are scrambling to secure a travel corridor between New York and London following fears Joe Biden could scrap it in favour of one with Dublin when takes office as US president next year. Plans to establish a corridor between Heathrow and JFK airport – known as Project Nylon – before Biden moves into the […]

BONNIE GREER on America’s problem with socialism – and the challenges facing The Democratic Party. When I am asked whether the US has ever been more divided than it is now, I used to reply that the republic, after all, had a Civil War. But now, even that catastrophe may stand alongside what may be called […]

A US official who once compared Brexit to a dog being run over by a car is expected to be appointed Joe Biden’s secretary of state. Antony Blinken once described Brexit as a “total mess” and said the process resembled a dog being run over by a car. Blinken, an Obama-era White House deputy, is expected […]