U.S. President Joe Biden appears to have demanded Britain’s newly minted Prime Minister Liz Truss bow to the EU over a key issue surrounding Brexit in their first call since she took office.
American President Joe Biden appears to have demanded that Britain’s new Prime Minister, Liz Truss, bow to the demands of the European Union in a post-Brexit dispute surrounding the Northern Ireland protocol.
Truss, who had previously been put in charge of renegotiating the contentious dealt, has long advocated for unilaterally scrapping the agreement without the approval of the EU over fears that the agreement is endangering the contested six-county region’s place within the United Kingdom.
However, bigwigs in Brussels have decried any attempt by the UK to change the deal on its own, launching legal challenges against the UK for allegedly breaking reneging on commitments it had made as part of the agreement.
Now, President Biden — a man known for publicly boasting about his Irish heritage, even going under the Secret Service codename “Celtic” — appears to have come strongly down on the side of the EU during a phone call yesterday between the two leaders on Tuesday.
According to a press release by the White House, Biden has seemingly demanded that the newly minted Prime Minister not go ahead with scrapping the deal, and instead heed EU demands that Brussels is consulted on any changes made to the agreement.
While also discussing issues such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as the dangers posed by both China and Iran, Biden in particular is said to have strongly emphasised to the new British leader that she must not single-handedly change or get rid of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
“They also discussed their shared commitment to protecting the gains of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the importance of reaching a negotiated agreement with the European Union on the Northern Ireland Protocol,” the press release read regarding the contents of the pair’s discussion.
More interestingly, a press release from Downing Street on the discussion — while acknowledging that the Good Friday agreement which guarantees peace in Northern Ireland was talked about — makes no reference to any exchange in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol, nor the European Union.
Biden’s demands also do not seem likely to be met, with Liz Truss telling the UK parliament on Wednesday that the protocol needs to be changed quickly to ensure peace in the North of Ireland.
“We need to resolve the issue of the Northern Ireland protocol, my preference is for a negotiated solution but it does have to deliver all the things set out in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill,” Truss told the lower house. “And what we cannot allow is for this situation to drift because my number one priority is protecting the supremacy of the Belfast ‘Good Friday’ Agreement.”
This is far from the first time that the United States has attempted to meddle in the Brexit process.
Seemingly seen as a positive legacy in U.S. foreign policy, the country has been keen to ensure the Brexit process does not disrupt major elements of the project, such as the freedom of movement between the six-county region, and the 26 counties controlled by the Irish state, which has been independent from the UK since 1922.
As a result, efforts by the likes of Truss to rip up the protocol — which is keenly backed by many in the pro-Irish nationalist camp on the island — have been met with outrage from U.S. Democrats, especially those with Irish-American backgrounds.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has previously even threatened to block a potential trade deal between the two powers should authorities in Westminster decide to rip up parts of the protocol without consulting the European Union.
“It is deeply concerning that the United Kingdom is now seeking to unilaterally discard the Northern Ireland Protocol,” she wrote online, emphasising the importance of free movement within the island of Ireland to the Good Friday agreement.
“Negotiated agreements like the Protocol preserve the important progress and stability forged by the Good Friday Accords, which continue to enjoy strong bipartisan and bicameral support in the United States Congress,” she continued.
“As I have stated in my conversations with the [then Prime Minister Boris Johnson], the Foreign Secretary [Liz Truss] & Members of the House of Commons, if the United Kingdom chooses to undermine the Good Friday Accords, the Congress cannot & will not support a bilateral free trade agreement with the U.K.,” the house speaker went on to threaten.
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