Joe Biden remembers Boris Johnson's 'racist comments' about Barack Obama

And it’s not just the President-elect who’s not too fond of the Eton-educated toff in charge of the UK, one source close to the new team told The Sunday Times: “If you think Joe hates him, you should hear Kamala.”

It dates back to 2016, at the height of the Brexit referendum, when Obama urged “citizens of the United Kingdom take stock of their relationship with the EU” and “be proud that the EU has helped spread British values and practices – democracy, the rule of law, open markets – across the continent and to its periphery”.

Johnson, who was the most prominent Leave campaigner, accused Obama of removing a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office because of his “ancestral dislike of the British empire”. 

WATCH: 'I'm Irish': US president-elect Joe Biden has cheeky dig at the BBC

Writing in the Sun, the Tory said: “Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender." 

At the time Churchill’s grandson Nicholas Soames, a Tory MP, called the article “appalling” .

He said Johnson was “unreliable and idle about the facts”, as there was still a Churchill bust inside the White House.

Last night, after Johnson tweeted his congratulations to Biden and Harris, Obama’s former special adviser was scathing. 

Tommy Vietor, who’s close to Biden, replied: “This shapeshifting creep weighs in. We will never forget your racist comments about Obama and slavish devotion to Trump”.

A Democrat party source told the Times: “They do not think Boris Johnson is an ally. They think Britain is an ally. 

“But there will be no special relationship with Boris Johnson.”

READ MORE: Ian Blackford: 'Boris Johnson has left the UK isolated in world'

Asked about the comments on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme, Chris Coons, a close friend of Biden and a potential US secretary of state, was more pragmatic. 

“Elected officials make comments here and there. That certainly wasn't one that was well received on my part, but frankly rather than relitigating or revisiting comments that may have been made days or years ago, I think as we reimagine our engagement with our vital allies around the world it's important in a post-Trump era to have an open mind about how we could work together, especially with nations as important to the United States as the United Kingdom”.

On the same programme, the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he was “confident” the UK would be able to have a meaningful relationship with the new administration, even though the UK Government's internal market bill is incompatible with the Good Friday agreement. 

He told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “We’ve been very clear we are absolutely committed to respect the Good Friday Agreement but our argument is, and it was good to have the opportunity when I was in Washington to explain, it is the EU who has put pressure on that with the approach it has taken.

“We want to resolve all those issues with the EU – obviously the negotiations are ongoing, there is a good chance of a deal if we get the flexibility from the EU on fisheries and level-playing field.

“I’m confident we will navigate all of those issues sensitively, correctly, and, as I said, we listen very carefully to our American friends, particularly on the Hill and in the Irish lobby – they feel very invested in the Good Friday Agreement, we understand that, and I pay tribute to what George Mitchell and Bill Clinton did – but it is not the UK which is putting it at risk, it is the approach of the EU.”

Obama later made clear his admiration for Churchill during a press conference.

He did not mention Johnson by name but said he had a bust of the former Tory leader outside his private office on the second floor of his official residence.

"Right outside the door of the Treaty Room, so that I see it every day – including on weekends when I'm going into that office to watch a basketball game – the primary image I see is a bust of Winston Churchill," he said.

"It's there voluntarily because I can do anything on the second floor. I love the guy."

It had been in the Oval Office, he said, but: "There are only so many tables where you can put busts otherwise it starts to looks a little cluttered."

As the first African American president, he said, a bust of Martin Luther King would be "appropriate", to remind him "of all the hard work of a lot of people who somehow allow me to have the privilege of holding this office".

He added: "That's just on Winston Churchill. I think people should know that, know my thinking there."