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Brexit trade deal with Australia ‘not very good’, admits ex-cabinet minister

George Eustice lambasts Liz Truss for arbitrarily ‘setting the clock against us’ and calls on top civil servant to quit

Andy Gregory
Tuesday 15 November 2022 09:51 GMT
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Expert says the UK economy has been permanently damaged by Brexit

Britain’s flagship post-Brexit trade agreement with Australia “was not actually a very good deal” and the UK “gave away far too much for far too little in return”, a member of the cabinet which pushed it through has admitted.

In a series of stinging remarks in the Commons, Johnson-era environment secretary George Eustice urged the government to recognise the Department for International Trade’s “failures” while negotiating what it hailed last December as a “historic” deal.

The agreements with Australia and New Zealand are the only new trade deals signed since Britain left the European Union, and the contracts sparked claims of a “betrayal” among farmers who feared being undercut by cheaper imports.

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