Liam fox

The great ministerial merry go round continues at pace. Liz Truss’s triumph in the leadership race has seen a number of ambitious MPs enter government for the first time; among them is Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. His new frontbench role as security minister means he has to surrender his post as head of the backbench committee, triggering something of a bun fight over who gets to replace him. Select committee chairmanships are highly valued prizes, bestowing the incumbent with prestige, profile and an extra £15,000 salary bonus. And it’s no surprise then that two of the biggest beasts in the backbench Tory jungle are set

The UK will nominate Liam Fox to be director-general of the World Trade Organisation. I understand that the decision to nominate the former trade secretary, who has been lobbying heavily for the job, was made last night. There were those in Whitehall who were opposed to nominating Fox. They argued that it was too soon after the UK had become an independent member of the WTO to put forward a candidate and that it would be better to concentrate on some more junior positions that the UK would have a better chance of getting. Boris Johnson, however, wasn’t persuaded by these arguments. He wants to use the UK’s G7 presidency next

Liam Fox is set to take to the stage this afternoon to give a speech on the opportunities of free trade as part of the government’s roadmap to Brexit. Only the International Trade Secretary has already hit a bump in the road. The former permanent secretary at his department, Martin Donnelly, has launched a broadside attack on the government’s plans. He has likened leaving the EU single market and customs union to ‘rejecting a three-course meal now in favour of the promise of a packet of crisps later’. Putting aside why Donnelly ever thought it would be a good idea to work in a department dedicated to free trade if he was

OK. It’s time for some optimism. It doesn’t seem like a year since we last met together in Birmingham. When we did so, my Department had been in existence for little over two months. We had the challenge, but more importantly the wonderful opportunity, to build a new department designed for the trade challenges of the 21st century. It has been a huge honour to be at the centre of such a historic project and to work alongside some of the most talented and energetic people in our country. In a short time, we have achieved so much. We have attracted the brightest and best talent from across Whitehall, the private

Stephen Bush of the New Statesman asked a good question the other day. Why do people who hate what Boris Johnson and Liam Fox are doing to Britain go easy on David Davis? He’s right to be perplexed. It turns out all those trade deals the leave campaign promised can’t be done for years. Liam Fox has nothing to do except be a public nuisance, which now I come to think of it is the only post he’s qualified to fill. Johnson meanwhile is an embarrassment, even to an administration which seems beyond shame, and Theresa May does her best to keep him locked in an FCO cellar. Davis, on the

Don’t Liam Fox and Michael Gove know how to use Skype? Just as the Cabinet finally start to reach agreement on the nuts and bolts of the UK’s Brexit negotiating position, a row has broken out across the Atlantic about chlorinated chicken. Much to Fox’s frustration, his trip to Washington to begin US/UK trade talks has been dominated by chicken. After accusing the British press of being ‘obsessed’ by the issue of chlorinated chicken being a part of a trade deal, Fox has attempted to dampen down speculation on the issue. Speaking to Newsnight yesterday from Washington, Fox acknowledged farming concerns – but declined to rule out allowing chlorine-washed chicken into the

What’s the most significant thing that Liam Fox has said today, as he begins talks with the US on a post-Brexit trade deal? Is it that he thinks the British media has an ‘obsession’ with chlorine-washed chicken (Ross takes a non-obsessive look at this here) or that he has admitted that it might be ‘optimistic’ to expect a trade deal between the UK and the EU by March 2019? It is true that the International Trade Secretary has often been the most optimistic about how hard Brexit will be (unkind people might suggest that this is because he hasn’t actually had to do much of the nitty gritty stuff since

Jeremy Corbyn – I did not make a commitment to write off student debt This morning Jeremy Corbyn became the last interviewee on the Andrew Marr Show  before the party conference season begins in September. With a potential general election on the cards at any time, there was much to discuss. In particular, Marr chose to delve a little deeper into Corbyn’s plans for alleviating student debt after the Labour leader declared he planned to ‘deal with it’ shortly before Britain went to the polls in June: Marr: A lot of people in this country are burdened by high levels of debt because of the student loans they’ve had to

Ever since the 56 SNP MPs descended on Westminster following the 2015 general election, they have been criticised for failing to master Westminster etiquette — from clapping in the Chamber to taking shortcuts through the Chancellor’s office. However, is it really the Conservative MPs that are the ones in need of a lesson in good manners? Mr S only asks after Lord Bell — the Tory grandee — let slip, at his Glass Half Full party, what Liam Fox told him Nicola Sturgeon’s nickname was when she was a student at the University of Glasgow. The Evening Standard reports that Bell revealed that the International Trade secretary said they called the First Minister ‘seaweed’. The reason?

Liam Fox has (for a change) unfairly become the subject of much mockery this week, over his department’s plans for ‘Empire 2.0’. The name relates to the International Trade Secretary’s plot to boost trade links with African Commonwealth nations by promising developing nations that their trading relationships with the UK will not get worse after Brexit. Contrary to many online jokes, the name was not concocted by an egocentric International Trade Secretary, but instead Whitehall officials who think it is misguided to place too much importance on trade with the Commonwealth, compared with the EU. It comes as the head of the Commonwealth secretariat has called for Britain to ‘go an awful lot faster’ in

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

As No.10 reels from Ivan Rogers’ resignation letter in which he accuses Theresa May’s government of ‘muddled thinking’, Liam Fox has found himself in the firing line. Britain’s departing ambassador to the EU has taken aim at the International Trade secretary — declaring that ‘free trade does not just happen’. Alas should Fox have some tense and difficult negotiations ahead over Brexit, there is reason to believe he may not be the man best placed for a high stakes poker game. Mr S couldn’t help but recall an anecdote courtesy of Theo Bertram — former adviser to Blair and Brown — of working in a corridor across from Fox in

Although Theresa May is adamant that she will trigger Article 50 come what March, today’s Times splash suggests otherwise. A ‘leaked’ memo from Deloitte to the paper claims that the government is behind schedule with Brexit preparations and is heavily short-staffed — requiring another 30,000 civil servants in order to get the job done. So, what are the current batch of civil servants getting up to? Well, over in the Department for International Trade, Mr S understands that reading is high on the agenda. Word reaches Steerpike that Liam Fox has instructed his civil servants to read Rising Tides: Facing the Challenges of a New Era — a book that aims to explain ‘how to