- Trade Secretary lashed the BBC and other media for supporting Remain
- He claimed the ‘pessimistic view’ was damaging prospects for a good deal
- Fox hit out in defence of Brexit on the fringes of the Tory party conference
Liam Fox (pictured today in Manchester) has lashed the ‘pessimistic’ BBC for talking down Brexit with ‘bizarre’ coverage of the negotiations
Liam Fox has lashed the ‘pessimistic’ BBC for talking down Brexit with ‘bizarre’ coverage of the negotiations.
The International Trade Secretary claimed not to be able understand why critical media produced the stories they did about Brexit.
He insisted he still believed as many 40 trade deals – based on duplicates of existing EU agreements with nations around the world – would be ready for ‘one second’ after Brexit.
And Mr Fox said his department was focused on delivering new bespoke deals with the US, Australia and New Zealand as soon as possible after Brexit.
Speaking on the fringe of the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Mr Fox said: ‘It just seems to me a bit bizarre that people would want to talk down our own chances of success.
‘It’s actually beneficial to the United Kingdom that those we’re negotiating with think that we have all the instruments at our disposal that we need,’ he said.
‘I think it’s time that we stop this damaging, pessimistic view of our future. Because I think as I go round the world, I find countries all the time who want to do business with the UK, who want joint ventures with British companies.
‘It’s just that I don’t read that in the pages of certain newspapers – and I’m not even saying the three letters BBC.’
He added: ‘In the full year since the referendum we’ve had more investment into the UK than at any other year in our history. Didn’t read that headline in the FT unless I missed it.
‘We should be confident about our future, we should have some of the confidence that the investors in the rest of the world seem to have in the UK.
‘It would be very nice if some of the editorships of our press took the same confidence and the same optimistic view for our country.’
The BBC insisted it was committed to impartiality and would continue to hear from a range of voices on Brexit
A BBC spokesperson told BuzzFeed News: ‘The BBC takes impartiality incredibly seriously and we are covering Brexit developments in depth by examining all the perspectives and arguments. We have a wide range of voices on air and will continue to do so.’
Mr Fox’s intervention is the latest from a series of critical comments from ministers about Brexit coverage.
Commons leader Andrea Leadsom was slammed for demanding the news out put from the BBC be more ‘patriotic’.
This week’s conference in Manchester has been dominated by furious rows over Brexit after Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s repeated interventions with his own priorities for the talks.