On Sunday afternoon both Boris Johnson and David Davis gave speeches on Brexit in the main hall at Conservative conference. Happily, their fellow Brexiteer Liam Fox was not too left out and had a chance to share his thoughts at the Conservative Voice’s ‘Brexit, Europe and the world’ reception that evening.
Clearly stung after Nick Clegg suggested he didn’t have a job at a recent Press Gallery lunch, Fox went on the offensive — branding the Lib Dem leader a ‘serial loser’ for doubting his power:
‘I hear Nick Clegg said I didn’t have a job because what we were acting on was delusional. Well I’d just ask you — before you have too much wine — please have a reality check. Nick Clegg feels sorry for me… because I don’t have a job… I mean there are reasons in politics why some are winners and some are serial losers.’
With Clegg out of the way, the Secretary for International Trade used the keynote speech to drop in that he had enjoyed a lunch with Rupert Murdoch of late:
‘Well none of us quite predicted the speed at which events would happen after the referendum. I happened to be having lunch — he says name droppingly — with Rupert Murdoch the next Sunday. He said “guys we’re getting a months copy every week, we don’t need this level of drama to continue”.’
He then went on to suggest that his department had realigned the country’s business strategy to sideline Russia and prioritise America:
‘Never quite could understand why we had to have a big trade mission in Moscow when we ourselves have trade sanctions against Moscow. It didn’t seem to me to be entirely on the nose that one so we’ve been moving around and we’ve just announced that we’re opening three new offices in the states.’
With Fox going on to say that of the thousand people to apply to his department to be a trade negotiator a few seemed genuine, it seems he will have his work cut out conquering America.
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