Biden says he is ‘here to listen’ in meeting with Sunak after denying claims he ‘hates the UK’ – politics live | Politics

Lisa O’Carroll

With less than 90 minutes before Joe Biden arrives in Ulster University for his speech, Northern Ireland political parties have still not had their meeting with the US president confirmed.

Leaders of all five main parties are sitting among the 100 or so guests already waiting in the auditorium for a speech that will restate America’s commitment to peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland.

One MP said: “We have been told we will be meeting him just before he speaks but we don’t know where.”

The trip to Belfast has been marred by repeated speculation of a rift between the White House and Downing Street on the nature of the US presidential visit, which has been edited down to half a day, with three days to follow south of the border.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, was seen at the back of the auditorium chatting and joking to Joe Kennedy III, Biden’s recently appointed economic envoy.

Biden is expected to wave a large financial carrot in front of the DUP in an effort to persuade them to return to Stormont, with an economic summit and a redoubling of efforts to lure US investment into Northern Ireland if power-sharing in Stormont can be restored.

The US president told reporters he was “here to listen” as he met Rishi Sunak at a hotel in central Belfast, PA Media reports. PA says:

Joe Biden faced a volley of questions from reporters, including whether he had a message for Northern Irish parties and why he was not discussing a trade deal while on his visit to the UK.

Biden, meeting the prime minister on the upper floors of the Grand Central Hotel, said: “Heck of a view out there.”

Sunak, smiling, sat at a table with the US president as the pair met over cups of tea.

The focus on being “here to listen” is probably intended to counter unionist concerns that he is here to strongarm or lecture them. (See 9.18am, 10.17am and 10.37am.)

UPDATE: This tweet, from the Washington Post’s Matt Viser, makes it clear that Biden said he was there “to listen” in response to a question about what he was going to tell the Northern Ireland parties. In other words, he wanted to stress he wasn’t in lecture mode.

The British Medical Association has asked the conciliation service Acas to look into ways of breaking the deadlock in the dispute between junior doctors and the government over the medics’ claim for a 35% pay rise, Denis Campbell reports.

White House rejects DUP claims that Biden is ‘anti-British’

Lisa O’Carroll

Joe Biden is “not anti-British,” one of his most senior aides has said in response to accusations by the former Democratic Unionist party leader Arlene Foster that the US president “hates the UK”. (See 10.37am.)

Just hours after he arrived in Belfast, the purpose of Biden’s short visit to Northern Ireland was being questioned by unionists who have been boycotting power-sharing arrangements in Northern Ireland for more than a year, meaning the territory has no devolved government.

At a briefing in Belfast, Amanda Sloat, special assistant to Biden and senior director for Europe at the national security council, denied the president’s Irish heritage made him biased against the British in relation to the continued deadlock over the devolved government in Stormont. She said:

I think the track record of of the president shows that he is not anti-British. The president has been very actively engaged throughout his career dating back to when he was a senator in the peace process in Northern Ireland and that involved engagement with leaders of all of Northern Ireland parties from both of the two main communities.

At a keynote speech at lunch time Biden will be sending out a message underlining the US’s continued support for the peace process in Northern Ireland and his “strong desire” to see enduring economic prosperity and political stability. Sloat said:

I think his message to the DUP and to all the political leaders is going to be … the continued strong support for seeing the peace process move forward here and the strong desire by this president to increase US investment in Northern Ireland to take advantage of the vast economic potential that that seems here, and to reiterate broad support for the returning of the devolved government in Northern Ireland.

Arlene Foster, the former DUP leader and former Northern Ireland first minister, told GB News last night that Joe Biden was more opposed to unionism than any US president in modern times. She said he hates the UK. She said:

He hates the United Kingdom, I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.

I just think the fact he’s coming here won’t put any pressure on the DUP at all, quite the reverse actually, because he’s seen by so many people as just simply pro-republican and pro-nationalist.

The DUP MP Sammy Wilson has also described Biden as “anti-British”. (See 9.18am.)

The DUP MP Sammy Wilson has escalated his criticism of Joe Biden (see 9.18am) this morning, suggested that he and US government are partly to blame for power-sharing not operating.

In an interview with TalkTV, Wilson claimed that Biden had been “trying to force the UK to fit into the EU mould” during the negotiations on implementing Brexit. And, restating his opposition to the Windsor framework, the revised version of the Northern Ireland protocol negotiated this year, Wilson said Biden was wrong about it.

After explaining his objections to the Windsor framework, Wilson said:

This is, of course, the result of a prime minister who claims to be a Conservative and unionist prime minister bowing to pressure, partly at least, from the Americans. And Joe Biden has played his part.

He has to accept the responsibility which he has in the institutions of the Good Friday agreement not working today and also in the political stability in Northern Ireland being impacted impacted by foreign interference from the EU, back by foreign interference by the American government, and unfortunately responded to by a spineless government at Westminster.

Asked if there was any chance of power-sharing at Stormont being resumed by before the local elections in Northern Ireland on 18 May, Wilson replied:

I hope that [Biden] doesn’t come here and lecture us about democracy and getting the Stormont assembly going. He wouldn’t accept any interference in the affairs of America by outside bodies or outside governments, I don’t think he should expect us to respond that either.

Wilson also said the DUP “can’t possibly go back into Stormont” if the UK government was not willing to “undo the damage” done by the Windsor framework.

Good morning. People in Northern Ireland are famed for being exceptionally friendly – except towards each other, the late Simon Hoggart used to joke. (He was a distinguished Belfast correspondent during the early years of the Troubles, before becoming the Guardian’s parliamentary sketchwriter.) But Joe Biden, who arrived in the city last night and who is giving a speech at lunchtime, has not been getting the warmest of welcomes by the main unionist party.

The visit is timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement. The US, and the president at the time, Bill Clinton, played a significant role in helping to facilitate that and ever since the White House has been regarded as a player that, from time to time, can have a positive influence on what is broadly described as “the peace process”.

But not so much today. Power-sharing at Stormont has been on hold for more than a year, because the DUP is boycotting the assembly and the executive in protest at the Northern Ireland protocol. At one point there were hopes that Biden could help to nudge them back into government with Sinn Féin and the other parties but, in advance of Biden’s visit, leading DUP figures said publicly that would be counter-productive.

As the Daily Telegraph reports, Nigel Dodds, the DUP peer, said his party would take no notice of Biden because he was “pro-nationalist”. Dodds said:

Pressure from an American administration which is so transparently pro-nationalist constitutes no pressure on us at all.

Our decisions will be taken with the interests of Northern Ireland at the heart of our thinking. That’s not what the Americans are about, especially Joe Biden.

The DUP MP Ian Paisley told TalkTV that, although Biden was welcome to Northern Ireland, he was likely to cause embarrassment because “the poor fella is unfortunately quite gaffe prone”.

And, as the Telegraph reports, the DUP MP Sammy Wilson said Biden was “anti-British”.

He’s anti-British. He is pro-republican and he has made his antipathy towards Protestants in particular very well known.

He has fully backed the EU in this whole protocol process. He’s refusing to come to the coronation. I don’t think any of us are rushing through the door to greet him.

As Archie Bland explains in his First Edition briefing about the visit, it is thought that the DUP is preparing to return to power-sharing, but not until after the local elections in Northern Ireland in mid-May. If Biden were to be seen to be pressurising them, that might be counter-productive.

Here is the agenda for the day.

11.15am: Joe Biden meets Rishi Sunak in Belfast.

Morning: Keir Starmer is campaigning in Norfolk, where he will give TV interviews.

1pm: Biden gives a speech at Ulster University.

4pm: Liz Truss, the former PM, gives a speech to the Heritage Foundation thinktank in Washington.

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