Joe Biden has officially become the Democratic Party nomination to run for President against Donald Trump in November after passing the required delegate threshold.

The former Vice-President, 77, revealed on Twitter that he had secured 1,991 delegates and would now be able to fight to ’win the battle for the soul of this nation’.

Despite being the presumptive delegate since Bernie Sanders withdrew in April, this milestone officially marks Biden’s place in the Presidential race.

His popularity has soared in recent weeks as a bi-product of Trump’s management of the coronavirus pandemic and the racial injustice movement across the country, with polls showing that he is ahead of the President in a number of key states.

In a statement on Friday Mr Biden said: "It was an honour to compete alongside one of the most talented groups of candidates the Democratic party has ever fielded and I am proud to say that we are going into this general election a united party."

This will be his third bid for the presidency and he has the backing of Barack Obama who said in April that Biden had ’all the qualities we need in a president right now’.

President Trump recently dubbed the Democratic candidate ’Sleepy Joe’ and the pair have clashed over unemployment levels, the management of the coronavirus pandemic and the death of George Floyd while in police custody.

These issues are expected to play a key role in the coming election as the race for the presidency picks up momentum.