UK trade secretary says Britain ‘too lazy and fat’ to secure future outside EU

Liam Fox lashes out at British business executives, suggesting they would rather be playing golf on a Friday afternoon than negotiating export deals

UK international trade secretary Liam Fox said some executives are more interested in playing golf than exporting products
UK international trade secretary Liam Fox said some executives are more interested in playing golf than exporting products

The UK’s international trade secretary Liam Fox has criticised Britain for “growing fat and lazy”, rendering it ill-prepared for business deals that must be carried out after leaving the EU.

“If you want to share in the prosperity of our country, you have a duty to contribute to the prosperity of our country,” he said at a Conservative Way Forward event for businesspeople in Parliament. “This country is not the free-trading nation that it once was. We have become too lazy, and too fat on our successes in previous generations.

“What is the point of us reshaping global trade, what is the point of us going out and looking for new market for the United Kingdom, if we don’t have the exporters to fill those markets?

“We’ve got to change the culture in our country. People have got to stop thinking about exporting as an opportunity and start thinking about it as a duty – companies who could be contributing to our national prosperity but choose not to because it might be too difficult or too time-consuming or because they cant play golf on a Friday afternoon.”

Fox, who was a prominent voice within the Leave campaign in the Brexit referendum, had resigned as defence secretary in 2011 over questions surrounding government access given to his friend and unofficial adviser Adam Werritty. However, prime minister Theresa May placed him in charge of negotiating trade deals for the UK once it has left the EU.

In his speech, Fox also criticised the “Foreign Office view of the world” for focusing on capital cities and diplomacy rather than business, and claimed his new department had taken charge of “trading elements”.

His statement follows his letter to foreign secretary Boris Johnson – that was leaked to the media – suggesting British trade would not flourish unless the Foreign Office was reduced to a department focused solely on security and diplomacy.

A Downing Street spokesperson insisted Fox had been expressing his own views at the event, and not the views of the government.