Boris Johnson says Joe Biden’s ‘not really Irish’
The U.S. president privately said his family were from Kent in south-east England, according to the former PM.
LONDON — Joe Biden secretly confessed that his family hails from England rather than Ireland, according to an eyebrow-raising claim from former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Writing in his just-published memoir “Unleashed”, Johnson gives his account of a private conversation with the U.S. president at the 2021 G7 summit in Cornwall.
Johnson writes: “He disarmed me completely by saying that his family origins were not really Irish at all, and that the Bidens were an old seafaring family from Kent (which seems plausible, since -den is a common Kentish termination).
“I suppose he may say something else when in Dublin. But never mind!”
Biden has long celebrated his links to the Republic of Ireland, with family ancestry in Mayo and Louth dating back more than 150 years. During a visit to Ireland in April 2023, Biden said: “Coming here feels like coming home.”
The U.S. president does have English ancestral links too, with a great-great-great grandfather born in Sussex.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris has already dismissed Johnson’s remarks about the outgoing president’s family history, which were trailed before the publication of the book.
“One question I definitely don’t need clarity from is that Joe Biden considers himself Irish,” Harris said. “I think Boris Johnson is a person who seems to be very good at selling books and I hope he is certainly much better at that than he was at being a politician.”
The former prime minister’s memoir contains a host of claims about world leaders including accusations French President Emmanuel Macron gave the U.K. a “punishment beating” for leaving the EU — and that a listening device was found in Johnson’s government bathroom after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used it.
What's Your Reaction?
