In his first phone call with newly appointed UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, President Joe Biden appears to have once again pushed the UK to sell out on Brexit.
U.S. President Joe Biden appears to have once again pushed for the UK to bow to the European Union on the core Brexit issue of Northern Ireland in his first phone call with the country’s new Prime Minister.
Biden’s White House had previously put significant pressure on now-former PM Liz Truss on the issue, with American authorities threatening to rip up any prospect of a UK-U.S. trade deal should Westminster not agree to allow Brussels to be left with legal authority over the disputed territory.
In a press release published on the White House’s official website, the President is said to have discussed the issue of Northern Ireland with Prime Minister Sunak, with both leaders being described as discussing “their shared commitment to protecting the gains of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.”
However, the White House statement also had the two leaders agree that there was a “need to maintain momentum toward reaching a negotiated agreement with the European Union on the Northern Ireland Protocol”, an agreement that currently allows the EU significant say in the operations of the six-county region, while also splitting it off from Britain’s internal market through the establishment of trade barriers.
Such an aspect of the conversation goes completely unmentioned within the debrief Downing Street published on the conversation, with the official statement from Number 10 only mentioning that the two leaders “agreed on the need to ensure the people of Northern Ireland have security and prosperity through preserving the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement”.
The White House statement appears to indicate that Joe Biden will continue pressuring the UK government over Brexit, with the aim of getting Westminster to bow to Brussels over disputes to do with the Northern Ireland protocol.
U.S. authorities have largely justified the political blackmail by saying that an agreement with the European Union is needed in order to ensure peace, with it being feared that Irish nationalists in the region could react badly should they end up being split off from various parts of the European Union and, likely by extension, the Southern Irish state, which remains a full member of the bloc.
However, the Northern Ireland Protocol as set out already seems to be straining peace in the territory, with many pro-British Unionists deeply unhappy that the existing agreement effectively leaves them largely in the hands of Brussels and cut off from the United Kingdom.
As a result, the largest Unionist political party in the region, the Democratic Unionist Party, has stated that it will not partake in governing the region until the agreement is reformed, a move that effectively makes devolved governance of the region impossible due to legal rules requiring the participation of the pro-UK group.
The failure of the DUP to form a government means that there will likely be yet another parliamentary election in the disputed territory, a move that comes with a degree of risk for pro-Britain Unionists, who are shrinking in size compared to their Irish nationalist rivals.
Such a demographic shift has already seen an Irish nationalist party, Sinn Féin, become the single largest political party in the country’s parliament, with further losses being possible if population trends continue.