Liam Fox, a prominent voice in the Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum and International Trade Secretary has stated that British business has become too “fat and lazy”.
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A journalist from the Times newspaper who was present at the event recorded the remarks, which were widely played on British news bulletins on Saturday.
As the U.K.’s relatively new trade secretary, Liam Fox is responsible for negotiating worldwide trade deals that allow the country’s businesses to thrive. The British minister charged with boosting global trade post-Brexit has slammed the country’s businesses as being too “fat and lazy” to capitalise on the opportunity, the Times newspaper reported today.
The trade minister warned that the arduous task of negotiating trade deals with worldwide partners in the wake of Brexit would be a waste of time “if we don’t have the exporters to fill those markets”.
He added: “We’ve got to change the culture in our country”. People must stop thinking of exporting as an opportunity, he said, and start thinking of it as a duty. Brexit Secretary David Davis was expressing his own view when he said it’s unlikely the United Kingdom would remain in the EU’s single market if that meant ceding control over immigration, her spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
Richard Reed is the co-founder of smoothie maker Innocent Drinks; and he was also anti-Brexit.
Liam Fox has come under fire after launching an outspoken attack on British business culture, claiming that executives prefer to play golf rather than fulfilling their “duty” as exporters. How dare he? He is a representative of us, of this country and he turns around and slags us off, calling us fat and lazy.
British businesses “lazy and fat”, pro-Brexit trade minister says was posted in Business of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on September 11, 2016 and was last updated on September 11, 2016.
He was criticised by Labour MPs and anti-Brexit campaigners but received the backing of other leading figures from commerce who said he was right to issue a wake-up call to British firms.
The Innocent Drinks co-founder, who campaigned to keep the United Kingdom in the European Union, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it is absolutely disgusting”.
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A spokesperson for Mrs May’s Downing Street office said that Liam Fox was simply expressing his personal views, which were not those of the government. He should apologise immediately for insulting Britain’s businessmen and women whose hard work in the national interest could teach him a thing or two.
