THIS week’s Brexit intervention by presidential candidate and former US vice-president Joe Biden was described as a surprise by many, particularly those Conservative backbenchers that have been stridently pushing a Hard Brexit and championing a US-UK trade deal for years regardless of valid fears about food standards.

However, it really shouldn’t have come as a surprise – as Biden was merely repeating the very clear message that has been made repeatedly by the Speaker of the Houses of Congress Nancy Pelosi, including just over a year ago in Dublin.

That message is that there will be no US-UK trade deal if Brexit in anyway jeopardises the peace in Ireland that is guaranteed by the Good Friday Agreement.

Regardless of who wins the US presidential election, trade deals are ratified by the Congress that Pelosi leads and indeed the very committee that would oversee any trade is the House Ways and Means Committee chaired by Richie Neal, who joined with Pete King, a Republican, in writing to the British Government earlier in the week to again hammer home this message.

The strong interest of American lawmakers in the Brexit process and more importantly the Irish peace process is understandable. Like Scotland, Ireland has a very large diaspora, a diaspora that we are proud of and a disaspora that is regularly engaged in matters of interest to the people of Ireland. The Irish diplomatic presence in the US is large.

Since independence, Ireland has pursued an open and dynamic foreign policy, believing in multilateralism.

Despite being a neutral country, Ireland has the longest continuing service of troops as UN peacekeepers and has just been elected to the UN Security Council. The government policy is to double Ireland’s diplomatic footprint.

We are lucky to have strong bilateral ties with Scotland through our consulate in Edinburgh and a very dynamic Scottish Government office here in Dublin. Working on shared economic interests like agrifood, renewable energy, financial services and much more are obvious commonalities between Ireland and Scotland as Ireland builds its ties around the world. Our diaspora in Glasgow is as treasured as it is in New York, Sydney or Paris.

Key to this effort is Ireland’s continuing membership of the European Union. Despite being independent from the UK for 50 years, the greatest demonstration of Irish sovereignty was the decision by the Irish people to vote to join the EEC, with a referendum supported by 80% of the population in 1972.

Membership of the EU has allowed a small state like Ireland with a population of just under five million, similar to Scotland, to take its place as an equal with all nations of the world.

Brexit is a retrograde move that is damaging the UK every day with a British Government prepared to break international law through the Internal Market Bill and a Government prepared to go into 2021 with no trade deal with either of its trading partners in the EU and the US.

Ireland and our partners in the EU are keen to negotiate a fair trade deal based on the agreed terms of the Political Declaration, but key to this is the protection of the Withdrawal Agreement that is an international treaty with obligations to international law.

The actions of the British Government over the past fortnight have been hugely damaging to the global reputation of the entire UK. Rather than focusing on internal deals in the Conservative party, once again the British Government would be far better off focusing their attention on negotiations with the EU.

Our negotiator Michel Barnier and his team continue to wait patiently.