Of all the departments focussing on Brexit, it’s Liam Fox’s department that most regularly bears the brunt of unwanted publicity — whether it’s the Secretary for International Trade’s claim that UK businesses are lazy or reports of staffing issues and niche reading lists.
Today in an appearance at the International Trade Select Committee, Fox tried to set the record straight. He began by requesting an apology from Gus O’Donnell, the former Cabinet secretary, who has said setting up the new department was a mistake. Given that O’Donnell wasn’t at the hearing, he wasn’t able to oblige. But Fox wasn’t done there. He accused the media of being ‘ill-informed’ about the work his department does, and said reports that his staff are ‘third-rate’ and behave like ‘headless chickens’ were ‘insulting’.
On trade, he brushed off claims that a UK trade deal with the US could lead to a privatisation threat against the NHS as being ‘on a par with alligators in the sewers as an urban myth’.
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