Theresa May's advisers 'have no clue' how to strike the best Brexit trade deals, claims former Tory minister

     Theresa May’s advisers do not understand how to strike the best Brexit trade deals, a Tory former minister claimed today.

In an outspoken attack on the Prime Minister’s top team, ex-Treasury Minister Lord Jim O’Neill warned: “These people lack strategic perspective.

“We should have a minister almost permanently camped in China trying to do trade deals, but they simply don’t think about China when they get out of bed. It is not in their DNA.”


The peer, former chief global strategist for banking giant Goldman Sachs , quit the Government last year after a string of policy bust-ups.

He feared officials were not geared up to maximise the potential of Mrs May’s flagship branding of “Global Britain”.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “You’ve got to follow through on Global Britain with substance, and they are not doing that.

“The Chinese are confused about what is happening.”

Lord O’Neill was close to then Chancellor George Osborne when the Government courted China in a naked bid for billions of pounds of investment.


But, highlighting what he claimed was an example of how officials are failing to it the right tone, the peer mocked a much-heralded potential trade deal with New Zealand, which had previously been trumpeted by the Prime Minister.

Jim O'Neill has mocked Theresa May's plan to do deals with New Zealand (Photo: PA)

Announcing in January that International Trade Secretary Liam Fox would be dispatched to the country to pursue negotiations, Mrs May said: “As two island nations, we know that trade is essential to the prosperity of our countries.

“While the UK remains in the EU we will work together to support an EU-New Zealand trade deal and we will also look to the future and how we can expand our trade and investment partnership.

“Through our new bilateral trade dialogue we will push for greater global trade liberalisation and reform, share expertise and identify ways to strengthen our own trading relationship.”

The UK is currently New Zealand’s fifth biggest trading partner.

But Lord O’Neill said: “New Zealand is a lovely place but it is a very long way away and its economy is smaller than Greece.”

[MIRROR]