Daily US Times: US presidential candidate Joe Biden has said he will not allow peace in Northern Ireland to become a “casualty of Brexit” if he is elected President in the upcoming election. The Democratic candidate said any US-UK trade deal had to be “contingent” on respect for the Good Friday Agreement.
The UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been trying to reassure politicians in the US about the latest Brexit developments during a trip to Washington.
Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of State, said he trusted the UK to “get this right”.
But the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said there was “no chance” of a US-UK trade deal getting through the US Congress if the UK violated international agreements, undermining the Good Friday Agreement.
After a meeting with Mr Raab, the House speaker said the UK’s exit from the EU could not be allowed to “imperil” peace in Northern Ireland.
Ms Pelosi said the lower house of Congress, which is currently controlled by her party, would defend the 1998 Good Friday Agreement as a “beacon of hope for peace-loving people throughout the whole world”.
And Mr Biden, who is also a Democrat, is going up against US President Donald Trump in November’s election, tweeted.
Brexit is high on the agenda at the meetings in Washington, after the Internal Market Bill cleared its first parliamentary hurdle earlier this week.
The proposed law would give the United Kingdom government the power to override part of the Brexit withdrawal deal – which Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed with the EU last October.
The bill now faces further scrutiny in the House of Commons, and also needs to be passed by the House of Lords.
If the law comes into force, it would breach international law – a prospect that prompted an angry response from senior figures in the United States last week.
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