Inside Politics: Boris Johnson prepares for phone call with Joe Biden

The prime minister is now pondering whether to drop the law-breaking parts of his Brexit bill to keep the president-elect happy, writes Adam Forrest

Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the Remembrance Sunday ceremony in Whitehall (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Donald Trump still has a few friends left to play golf with – though not the kind of friends who’ll tell him he lost the election. Boris Johnson is busy trying to win the friendship of Joe Biden. The president-elect’s sport is American football (he was a pretty good college player). Maybe Boris could tell him about the time he knocked over a Japanese boy playing rugby? Keen to ingratiate himself, the PM is now considering whether to drop the offending clause in his law-breaking Brexit bill. The PM is also keen to ingratiate himself with Britain’s most popular footballer – giving in to Marcus Rashford’s demand that the poorest children get fed this winter.

Inside the bubble

Our political editor Andrew Woodcock on what to look out for today:

Peers are expected to savage Boris Johnson’s Internal Market Bill, removing clauses which would give UK ministers the power to override the Northern Ireland Protocol agreed at the third committee stage. Joe Biden has warned there will be no trade deal if the bill puts the Good Friday Agreement peace process at risk – and the issue is likely to be high on the agenda in the phone call Downing Street is hoping to arrange between the PM and the president-elect.

Daily briefing

THE SHAPE OF YOU: Boris Johnson insisted the UK-US relationship is so special it doesn’t matter if Joe Biden likes him or not. The prime minister said there is “more that unites than divides”. As Johnson prepares to speak to the Democrat on the phone, one member of Team Biden made clear the personal enmity towards the PM was real. A source in the president-elect’s camp told The Sunday Times: “There will be no special relationship with Boris Johnson.” Ex-Obama official Tommy Vietor called Johnson a “shapeshifting creep”, adding: “We will never forget your racist comments about Obama and slavish devotion to Trump.” Johnson is now considering whether to bow to pressure over his Internal Market Bill, due to be amended in the Lords this afternoon. Some Tories told the BBC they believe Biden’s victory means No 10 will accept peers’ changes and “lay matter to rest”. Foreign secretary Dominic Raab hinted at a climbdown – promising that “we would listen very carefully to our American friends” on the Northern Ireland Protocol.

I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW: Has Biden’s win changed Boris the shapeshifter’s calculations over a trade deal with Brussels? Johnson sounded pretty enthusiastic after his call with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. As talks resume in London today, the PM said: “I think there is a deal to be done, if they want to do it. … The broad outlines are pretty clear, we just need to get on and do it if we can.” Elsewhere in Westminster, Johnson will meet with chancellor Rishi Sunak and business secretary Alok Sharma today to discuss how far nuclear power should be part of the UK’s future energy mix. The government is set to publish a 10-point plan for zero carbon emissions by 2050 next week. Officials told the BBC that Sizewell is the only potential nuclear project ready to green light if the government wants to start construction within this parliament, according to the BBC.

RASHFORD 2 JOHNSON 0: Two big wins a row for Marcus Rashford, after the PM shapeshifted over the free meals issue. The PM phoned the Manchester United star at the weekend to tell him he was brilliant and pledge £400m of support. It means a winter grant scheme, run by local authorities, will provide more support with food vouchers for struggling families, while a holiday food and activities programme will also be expanded. “The steps made today will improve the lives of near 1.7 million children … and that can only be celebrated,” said Rashford. Tory MPs are definitely not celebrating – resentful that they were made to argue against Rashford’s demands for the past few weeks. The second poll in a row showing a clear lead for Labour seems to have them on edge. The Sunday Mirror reported that MPs are now being recruited for a push to topple Johnson, with at least one ready to submit a letter demanding another Tory leadership contest.

EXPENSIVE PODCAST PREP: Kate Bingham, head of the government’s vaccine taskforce, has questions to answer after it emerged that she charged taxpayers £670,000 to bring in a team of outside PR consultants. Eight consultants from Admiral Associates – on the equivalent of £165,000 salaries – were hired by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, according to documents leaked to The Sunday Times. Bingham, wife of Tory minister Jesse Norman, was said to have “insisted” on the team to help her prepare for interviews and podcasts. In other Covid news, freight drivers who aren’t UK citizens and have been through Denmark in the last 14 days will be turned away from the UK border following the outbreak of a Covid strain that’s spread from mink to humans. Raab denied it was draconian, calling it a “common sense measure the public would expect us to take”.

CHATTY CHATTY BANG BANG: Senior cabinet ministers have been interviewed – and had their phones examined – as part of inquiry into the leaking of the second lockdown plan. Government sources have dubbed it the “chatty rat” hunt. How very pleasant. Michael Gove and Matt Hancock has already denied the leak came from them. Rishi Sunak is also understood to have denied involvement. In more serious intelligence intrigue, GCHQ has launched a new campaign to counter any propaganda aiming to undermine the UK’s coronavirus vaccine. According to The Times, spy chiefs are worried about Moscow attempting to exploit fears online. It follows an alarming warning from the head of the UK armed forces that the pandemic is increasing the risk of a new world war. General Sir Nick Carter told Sky News that Covid was raising the temperature of small conflicts across the globe. “You could see escalation lead to miscalculation, and that’s a thing I think we have to guard against.”

MOVING SWIFTLY ON: Joe Biden is ignoring the most sinister hissy fit in American history, and is already making plans for his first weeks in the White House. The Democrat is reportedly ready to use executive orders to repeal the travel ban on a handful of Muslim-majority countries, and to restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Biden is also said to be keen to re-join the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organisation. Donald Trump, like King George III running around in his white robes, is refusing to acknowledge reality – ordering staff to maintain his delusions and pursue spurious lawsuits to contest the election. Former Republican president George W. Bush attached himself to the reality-based community, saying “the outcome is clear” and describing Biden as a “good man”. Will Trump care? Of course not. It’s not yet clear which members of the inner circle will attempt to persuade him to walk away, before he is led away by security officials.

On the record

“There is far more that unites the government of this country and government in Washington any time, any stage, than divides us.”

Boris Johnson lets Joe Biden know he wants to be his friend.

From the Twitterati

Government: “Universal credit is enough to feed hungry kids. There will be no U-turn!” *waits till everyone’s focused on the US election* *U-turns*

David Schneider finds the timing of the Rashford announcement interesting...

I do wonder whether all the Tory MPs who trotted out all the *reasons* for not feeding hungry children are bright enough to realise how completely Johnson has shafted them.

…while James O’Brien says Tory MPs will be livid, regardless of the timing.

Essential reading

John Rentoul, The Independent: Was Boris Johnson bounced into ordering the second lockdown?

Sean O’Grady, The Independent: Whisper it quietly but journalists are already starting to miss Trump

Kate Andrews, The Spectator: What does Boris Johnson really think of Joe Biden’s win?

Ezra Klein, Vox: Trump is attempting a coup in plain sight

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