Australia trade deal gave too much away, says Eustice

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.

- ANDY GREGORY

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.

In his comments yesterday, Mr Eustice said that the UK "did not actually need" to give Australia nor New Zealand full liberalisation in beef and sheep, and "it was not in our economic interest to do so" - echoing reports of his involvement in a "ferocious row" with Liz Truss over the matter at the time.

Relishing his newfound "freedom of the backbenches" after being relieved from his post by Ms Truss in September, Mr Eustice attacked the then-international trade secretary for "setting the clock against us" by imposing an "arbitrary target" for the deal's conclusion.

"From that moment the UK was on the back foot repeatedly," Mr Eustice told MPs, accusing Ms Truss of having "asked her opposite number from Australia what he would need in order to be able to conclude an agreement by G7".