Tories Are ‘Praying’ Joe Biden Becomes President. Here’s Why They Want Him
With just over a week to go until the US presidential election, British Conservatives are finally going public with their support for Joe Biden.
Boris Johnson’s former chancellor Sajid Javid has declared that “Britain is better off with Biden”, and many others in his party are “praying” for a Trump defeat.
Tory MPs told HuffPost UK that they were backing the Democrat because of climate change, foreign policy such as the Iran nuclear deal and “the return of dignity” to the White House.
With Johnson’s Downing Street scrambling to build links with the Biden team in recent weeks, several backbenchers said that the PM’s own standing among the public could also be helped if Trump was no longer on the scene.
Ever since former premier John Major’s government was accused in 1992 of digging dirt on Bill Clinton’s youth in the UK, the Conservative party has been reluctant to wade into presidential elections.
Johnson, who said of Trump in 2015 “I am genuinely worried that he could become president” swiftly changed his tune once the reality TV star and real estate developer looked like a serious contender for the Republican nomination a year later.
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Since Trump became president he has torn up convention by undermining Theresa May and openly supporting Johnson as her successor, and the two men have tried to form a strong bond over a post-Brexit UK-US trade deal.
Yet Trump’s divisive rhetoric and his quixotic approach to world affairs has led many Tory MPs to conclude that both the country and their party would be better off if he loses the 2020 election. One insider told HuffPost that “the vast majority” of Downing Street staff wanted a Biden victory.
Former foreign office minister Sir Alan Duncan, who had to deal with Trump up close during his visit to London in 2019, said: “Trump has been a global embarrassment and the most unenlightened Western leader...
