How can we reassure other countries that Brexit isn’t a victory for ‘Little Britain’? Howard Drake has the answer

Reassuring other countries that Brexit doesn’t mean Britain is hauling up the drawbridge is vital for ensuring the UK continues to succeed. So far, much of the foreign coverage of the outcome in the EU referendum has certainly painted the decision as an isolationist move. The German newspaper Taz.am wochenen summed up that sentiment with its front page at the weekend, which said simply: ‘Well done, little Britain’. So what is being done to offer assurances to other countries that Britain is, in the words of George Osborne this morning, still ‘open for business’?

Not a lot if the Foreign Secretary’s appearance on TV at the weekend was anything to go on. Instead of telling nations that Britain wants to keep trading and isn’t closing in on itself, Philip Hammond said only that it would be ‘catastrophic’ if Britain lost its access to the single market. He isn’t wrong, but such talk only adds to the panic. And, more crucially, it does nothing to salve misplaced worries abroad that Brexit is about Britain becoming ‘little’ again. But despite Hammond not doing enough to put that message out there, one man is trying valiantly to show that Britain isn’t slamming the door shut. The UK’s high commissioner in Canada, Howard Drake, had this to say as he reassured Canada that Britain would be open-minded about a free-trade deal with the country following Brexit:

‘We’ll be strongly pro-free trade outside the European Union. We’ll be looking to make trade deals with other countries around the world, including Canada. Other countries that are currently outside the EU do have very good trading relationships and trade agreements with other countries, so we can be the same. We have a lot to bring to the party.’

Whilst it isn’t clear that a free trade deal with Canada is on the cards anytime soon, particularly given it’ll be at least two years before Britain actually leaves the EU, Howard Drake’s initiative-taking should be followed throughout the world by British ambassadors and diplomats trying to show what Brexit is. It’s also hugely helpful for showing what Brexit isn’t: that Britain no longer wants to be a ‘trading nation’. What’s more, it’s also nice to hear something positive that the referendu result last week can be the start of good things, not the end of the world as we know it.