- The Boris Johnson government privately wants Donald Trump to lose the next presidential election to Joe Biden, according to a new report.
- UK government sources told the Sunday Times that Johnson has been trying to distance himself from the Trump administration in anticipation of a possible Biden victory.
- The Johnson administration reportedly abandoned plans to sign a trade deal with Trump this year, saying they don’t want the president to reject them.
- A senior UK diplomat told Business Insider that a Biden victory would end Trump-era “venal corruption”.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
The UK government is privately “desperate” for Donald Trump to lose the next presidential election and be replaced by Joe Biden, according to a Sunday Times report.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is publicly one of Trump’s closest international allies.
However, his government has been trying to privately distance himself from the President of the United States, in anticipation of a possible Biden victory in November, the Times reports.
“It would make things a lot easier if Trump does not win reelection,” a Johnson government minister told Times reporter Tim Shipman, adding that “privately, many [others in the government] agree.”
Some UK officials also expect a victory from Biden.
A senior UK diplomat, who asked not to be identified, told Insider earlier this month that a Biden presidency would end Trump-era “venal corruption”.
“A lot of things will change if Biden wins,” said the diplomat.
“The venal corruption of the Trump family and the nasty narcissistic aspects of their behavior – all of that will go with a different kind of president,” they said.
Biden and Johnson are not natural allies. The Democratic challenger opposed Johnson’s favorite Brexit project and reportedly previously described the UK Prime Minister as a “clone” of Trump.
However, relations between Johnson and the Trump administrations have been strained in recent months after Trump’s successful bid to force the Johnson government to cut ties with Chinese telecommunications company Huawei.
The president reportedly hit Johnson’s phone in a moment of “apoplectic” fury in January, when Johnson initially refused to scrap the UK deal with Huawei to help develop Britain’s 5G network.
The United Kingdom eventually relented after the US sanctions were imposed on the company. However, the dispute has helped curb the Johnson government’s appetite for a new trade deal with Trump.
On her recent trip to Washington, UK Secretary of International Trade Liz Truss was told to downplay the prospects for a deal.
“Boris was trying to distance himself from Trump,” a UK government adviser told the Sunday Times.
Reportedly, fears among UK voters about the potential impact of a U.S. trade deal on food standards in Britain have forced the Johnson government to curb prior information on a potentially quick deal.
“Is this going to happen this year? Basically not,” a UK government official told the Financial Times this week, adding: “We don’t want to be forced to come to an agreement.”
The Johnson administration believes that a Biden victory could take the “sting” out of the question, because the Democratic challenger would likely revive Obama’s plan to sign the United States for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
A Conservative Party adviser told the Sunday Times: “The assumption at Whitehall is that if Biden wins, we won’t have to make a bilateral trade deal because we could both end up in CPTPP. That is already committed to high standards of animal welfare.” Part of the sting will get rid of those problems. “
