Katy Balls Katy Balls

‘Whitehall was horrified by Brexit’: an interview with Australia’s departing high commissioner

issue 07 May 2022

When Britain voted for Brexit, Tony Abbott, the former prime minister of Australia, had an idea. How about striking a new free trade deal between Australia and the UK to celebrate escaping the statism and bureaucracy of Brussels? The deal needed to be only one page long, he argued, because the two countries were already so similar.

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