UK government keeps poker face as British politics holds breath on unclear US election
LONDON — U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab refused to be drawn on Donald Trump’s premature claim to have won the U.S. election, or his allegation that the Democrats had committed “fraud” on the American people.
Speaking to broadcasters on Wednesday morning with the result still uncertain, Raab insisted Boris Johnson’s government had “full faith in the U.S. institutions, the checks and balances in the U.S. system” and that a “definitive result” would be produced in the coming hours or days.
Johnson himself is taking MPs' questions in the House of Commons later on Wednesday, where he is likely to be pressed on Trump’s claims, which the Labour opposition said proved that he was a president “that doesn’t play by the rules.”
Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that Trump’s statement, in the early hours of Wednesday, has “proven why questions of democracy, people’s right to be heard, free and fair elections are absolutely at stake in this election.”
Some senior members of Johnson’s own party also raised concerns over the uncertain outcome of the race and the prospect — raised by Trump — of any eventual result being challenged at the U.S. Supreme Court. Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told POLITICO: “We need to make sure protracted legal arguments don’t turn into a catastrophe for the worldwide reputation of democracy.”
Tom Tugendhat, Conservative chair of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee said: “Democracy relies on trust that the election is fair. President Trump’s comments undermine that trust even as the counting continues.”
“This is still too close to call but we can already see that the early predictions of a whitewash are way off. It’s clear that President Trump has strong support.”
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, a frequent critic of the Trump administration, also went further than the U.K. government line. After Trump’s statement, she tweeted that there were “crucial hours and days ahead for the integrity of U.S. democracy.”
“Let’s hope we start to hear the voices of Republicans who understand the importance of that.”
Johnson’s response to the unfolding situation will be watched closely at home and abroad. His government has the closest relations to the Trump White House of any leading European power and while the U.K. would be more aligned with the foreign policy goals of a Joe Biden administration, the Democratic challenger’s opposition to Brexit has led to concerns that the U.S.-U.K. relationship could suffer should he win the White House.
Meanwhile, the Labour opposition has seized on predictions of a fractious Johnson-Biden relationship, claiming that Downing Street’s courting of the Trump administration has alienated Democrats.
“What we’ve seen in Britain over the last few years is an approach to President Trump … that has not really taken account of the fact that this is president that doesn’t play by the rules,” Nandy said.
Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday morning with results still coming in, Raab dismissed such concerns saying that, while the “contours of the relationship” might “shift a little bit” depending on who wins, the “bedrock of economic ties, security cooperation and shared values” between the two governments would remain.
Meanwhile Brexit Party leader and Trump ally Nigel Farage claimed that the president’s comments came from “frustration” that there was no clear result yet. “What he was talking about is the potential for voter fraud,” Farage told the BBC, but when pressed conceded: “There is no evidence of fraud at this stage.”
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