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.
