Liam Fox being lined up as Britain's candidate to lead World Trade Organisation

Former trade secretary was sacked by Boris Johnson but has remained loyal – and would be popular choice among Tory MPs

Liam Fox is being lined up for a possible return to a big political job as Britain's candidate to lead the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The former trade secretary was sacked by Boris Johnson last year, but he has remained loyal to the prime minister and would be a popular choice among Tory backbenchers.

His biggest rival for the nomination is thought to be Peter Mandelson, the former Labour cabinet minister and EU trade commissioner, who would be unlikely to get the nod from Downing Street.

Dr Fox is under consideration at a critical time for the WTO, which is at the heart of the Conservative Party's vision for signing post-Brexit free-trade deals with countries across the world.

However, the WTO has been crippled by the US-China trade war and left unable to adjudicate trade disputes since last December, when Donald Trump refused to appoint US judges to its appellate body.

The 58-year-old former trade secretary has close links in Washington and would need its support, or backing from one of the other big WTO power brokers, to land the job.

But support from the Trump administration could backfire elsewhere in the world, given the president’s attempts to sabotage the workings of the WTO that have created the biggest crisis in its 25-year history.

Ministers have until 8 July to nominate a candidate and will meet this week to discuss the issue, The Times reported.

It said that the EU is split over Dublin’s nomination of Phil Hogan, the Irish former minister and current EU trade commissioner, with some national leaders keen for him to stay in Brussels.

Other potential candidates include Arancha Gonzalez, the Spanish foreign minister; Amina Mohamed, the former Kenyan foreign minister and UN official; and Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch trade minister.

Dr Fox has continued to write extensively on international trade issues since leaving his cabinet post last July, having served for three years in Theresa May’s doomed attempts to strike a Brexit deal.

He once said it would be impossible, under WTO rules, for Britain to ban chlorinated chicken as part of a trade agreement with the US.

“There’s been no argument about food safety on chlorine-washed chicken – it’s been an argument about animal welfare,” he told an event.

“So, it’s not been about food standards per se, so that’s a slightly different debate and much more difficult to quantify because the legal definitions about it at the WTO are much less.”