Lord Michael Howard: Biden presidency is better for UK

4 November 2020, 07:35 | Updated: 4 November 2020, 07:44

Lord Michael Howard: UK will benefit more from Biden presidency

The UK Government's interests are more closely attuned to a Biden presidency than a Trump presidency, former Conservative leader Lord Michael Howard told LBC.

Joe Biden and the UK have similar views over values such as climate change, international trading rules and NATO, he said to Nick Ferrari.

Nick pointed out that while Mr Trump believes in NATO, he just believes people should pay their "fair whack"; while Lord Michael agreed, he posited that Trump's "ambivalence about NATO goes beyond that."

The former Conservative leader assured Nick that Prime Minister Boris Johnson could forge a positive relation with Democrat Joe Biden if he were to win the keys to the White House.

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"These things take time but I think in the end, common interests really matter a great deal," Lord Michael said, "Biden believes in multilateralism, he believes in working with partners - whereas Trump adopts a much more transactional approach. He's much more interested in bilateral deals.

"I think we can benefit from a multilateral approach. I think it may take a little time but Boris Johnson would get on well with President Biden."

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Turning to domestic matters, Nick asked the former Conservative leader's opinion on Boris Johnson announcing a second national lockdown starting at midnight on Wednesday.

Lord Michael responded: "I think this Government faces the most challenging, difficult set of circumstances that any peacetime Government in our country has ever faced.

"He's taken this decision extremely reluctantly, he's taken it to save lives, Government has an overriding responsibility to save lives and I support him."