A senior UK Conservative lawmaker who was second-in-command to Prime Minister Theresa May has broken cover to offer a tacit endorsement for Joe Biden in the U.S. Presidential race, criticising President Trump as he did so.
“Britain would be better off with Joe Biden”, the headline of an opinion piece by Conservative Member of Parliament Sajid Javid said on Friday. The Tory was an influential cabinet minister through the David Cameron and Theresa May years — before resigning his post shortly after Boris Johnson took control.
Now the former Home Secretary — one of the most senior jobs in the British government — has waded into the U.S. Presidential race, revealing that while he lived in the U.S. in the 1990s he supported the Republicans, now he prefers Joe Biden.
Among the praise Javid gave the former Vice President was the fact Biden would be an enthusiastic participant at the 2021 United Nations climate conference, that he is a “multilateralist” interested in global organisations, and is a “foreign affairs veteran”.
While Javid conceded that Biden wouldn’t be as friendly to Britain leaving the European Union as President Trump would — the most important political matter in Britain for a generation — he concluded this didn’t actually matter as this would “hardly be top of his in-tray”.
President Trump on the other hand, as the top Tory perceived it, was responsible for a litany of ills. Among his criticisms of the President were Trump’s America-first policies, his opposition to the TPP, and even what he called an “alienating” and “unpredictable” foreign policy.
In conclusion, Javid said, Biden would be a “dependable ally” for Britain.
On some areas, Javid reminded readers of some clear truths — that despite the mainstream media frequently mischaracterising Boris Johnson as Britain’s Donald Trump, particularly early on in his leadership, the two men actually have very little in common. “When it comes to policy, Biden will find he has more in common with the Johnson government than Trump ever did,” Javid wrote.