JOE Biden told Boris Johnson “we both married above our station” this afternoon as the pair and their wives met for the first time at the G7.
The PM and the US President sat down for face-to-face bilateral talks in Cornwall – while Carrie Symonds hosted First Lady Jill for tea.
Read our Joe Biden UK trip LIVE blog for the latest updates
Although tensions over Northern Ireland have risen in the run-up to the meeting, the pair were all smiles and kicked off with light banter.
Speaking to reporters at the Carbis Bay hotel, President Biden joked: “I told the PM we have something in common, we both married way above our station.”
Mr Johnson – who wed his fiancee Carrie in secret two weeks ago – replied: “I’m not going to disagree with the president there… Or indeed on anything else.”
The pair greeted with a Covid-friendly elbow bump this afternoon before strolling along the beach at Carbis Bay with their wives.
Carrie used her first duties as the new Mrs Johnson to promote the British high street, stepping out in a red LK Bennett dress and Zara shoes.
Jill wore a jacket emblazoned with the word “love”, and said: “Well, I think that we’re bringing love from America.”
They were due to meet at historic St Michael’s Mount but had to alter their plans at the last minute due to bad weather.
Instead they stared out over the sea, with the President telling his British counterpart: “It’s gorgeous, I don’t want to go home.”
What’s happened so far…
- Jill Biden scolds Joe in UK trip speech and tells president to ‘pay attention’
- Biden jokes ‘I keep forgetting I’m president’ in awkward moment during UK trip after running on stage
- Inside Biden’s £30million G7 ring of steel with warships, The Beast & 400 Secret Service agents watching his every move
- Biden calls the Royal Air Force the ‘RFA’ in major blunder during first ever speech on British soil
- Biden brings £1.2m Cadillac ‘The Beast’… but will it fit down Cornwall’s tiny country lanes?
- Joe Biden gives rallying speech to US troops in Britain and says ‘I’ll tell Mr Putin what I want him to know’
The G7 summit starts tomorrow but the Mr Johnson and President Biden met a day early to cement the two nations’ longstanding alliance.
The sleepy Cornish town is swarming with security and today the White House’s famed secret service formed a ring of steel around the President.
Ahead of the get-together President Biden vowed to “affirm the special relationship” between the UK and the US.
He said: “Today, I’ll be meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of the G7 Summit in Cornwall.
“I look forward to affirming the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom and discussing how we’ll tackle our shared challenges together in the years ahead.”
But privately the US President has sensationally accused the PM of “inflaming” tensions in Ireland ahead of their first meeting.
He is expected to address post-Brexit peace with the Prime Minister to ensure that the Good Friday Agreement is protected – as Britain and the EU try to resolve the issue of checks in the Irish Sea.
Yet the President and PM will also thrash out a plan to agree a new “Atlantic Charter” to resume transatlantic travel after the pandemic.
Today they studied pictures of the original Atlantic Charter signed post-war between Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt.
President Biden will then meet the Queen at Windsor Castle on Saturday, before heading to Brussels on Monday followed by Geneva.
He will use his eight-day European tour to signal a clean break from Trump’s undiplomatic presidency – as well as urge leaders to take action on climate change and building back from the pandemic.
For the weekend the typically sleepy town of Carbis Bay in Cornwall welcomes the G7 circus and its scrum of journalists and security.
A ring of steel has been thrown around the town, with security crawling the streets.
President Biden’s heavily-armoured “Beast” Cadillac was spotted.
