Joe Biden: Northern Ireland peace deal cannot become ‘casualty of Brexit’
US Presidential nominee Joe Biden last night waded into the row over the UK’s Brexit negotiations, warning there will be no trade deal unless the UK upholds the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement.
Trade talks with the EU have ramped up increasingly over the past week, with this latest intervention likely to put Downing Street officials on red alert.
Biden, of Irish heritage, wrote in a tweet: “We can’t allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit.
“Any trade deal between the US and UK must be contingent upon respect for the Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period.”
The Democratic presidential nominee was swiftly supported from those within his party.
Congressman Richard Neal last night tweeted: “Thank you Joe Biden for lending your voice to this important cause. We cannot lose sight of the importance of the Good Friday Agreement.”
But Tory MPs hit back at Biden’s intervention, with former trade minister Conor Burns tweeting: “Hey Joe Biden would you like to discuss the Good Friday agreement? It is also called the Belfast Agreement so it doesn’t offend both traditions. Did you actually know that? I was born in NI and I’m a Catholic and a Unionist. Here if you need help.”
Meanwhile, foreign secretary Dominic Raab yesterday visited Washington in a bid to sway cautious US politicians over the substance of the UK government’s Brexit plans.
Raab met with US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has repeatedly insisted that Brexit should not “imperil” peace in Northern Ireland.
Earlier this month she tweeted: “The Good Friday Agreement is the bedrock of peace in Northern Ireland. If the UK violates its international agreements & Brexit undermines the Good Friday accord, there will be absolutely no chance of a US-UK trade agreement passing the Congress.”
The US and UK had “exchanged our first market access offers” which was “a major milestone in negotiations,” trade secretary Liz Truss said earlier this month.
With both Tory MPs and US Democrats playing hardball over their demands, Biden and Pelosi have made it clear they will ditch a US-UK trade deal if a hard border emerges between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.