Joe Biden and the special relationship: What his inauguration means for the UK and Brexit

Joe Biden and the special relationship: What his inauguration means for the UK and Brexit

Joe Biden did not support Brexit and says it is "not how we would have preferred it to be".

He was vice president when Barack Obama appealed for the UK to stay in the European Union. Mr Obama said the UK would end up at the "back of the queue" for a trade deal.

In September Mr Biden wrote on Twitter: “Any trade deal between the US and UK must be contingent upon respect for the [Good Friday] Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period”

It was the first in a series of discouraging comments linking potential effects of Brexit to a future trade deal.

The following month he wrote: "We can't allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit."

In late November Mr Biden reiterated that he did not want to see a guarded border in Ireland.

Asked what his message to Brexit negotiators was, Mr Biden said: "We do not want a guarded border. We want to make sure. We've worked too long to get Ireland worked out.

"And I talked with the British prime minister, I talked with the Taoiseach, I talked with others, I talked to the French.

"The idea of having