George Eustice brands Australia free trade deal a ‘failure’ in brutal swipe at Liz Truss
Sacked cabinet minister George Eustice has taken brutal revenge on Liz Truss by accusing her of blundering by rushing into a trade deal with Australia and New Zealand.
George Eustice, who was environment secretary under Boris Johnson but was sacked by Ms Truss when she became prime minister, claimed the deal was not good for the UK and blamed her.
His astonishing attack on Ms Truss, who was international trade secretary from 2019-2021, came in a devastating speech from the back benches during a Commons debate.
He began his onslaught by telling MPs there were “deep arguments and differences in cabinet” about how the government should approach the trade deal, which was agreed last year.
“But since I now enjoy the freedom of the back benches, I no longer have to put such a positive gloss on what was agreed,” said Mr Eustice who, unlike Ms Truss, was a Brexiteer.
And he said: “Unless we recognise the failures the Department for International Trade made during the Australia negotiations, we will not be able to learn the lessons for future negotiations.
“The first step is to recognise that the Australia trade deal is not actually a very good deal for the UK, which was not for lack of trying on my part.”
His speech also included a vicious attack on the trade department’s top civil servant, interim permanent secretary Crawford Falconer, who Mr Eustice claimed was “not fit for that position”.
The trade deal with Australia and New Zealand, was hailed by Mr Johnson when he announced it as a “new dawn” which would see British cars, Scotch whisky, biscuits and ceramics easier to sell.
‘UK gave away far too much for too little in return’
But at the same time, it was criticised by the National Farmers Union as bad for British beef and lamb farmers. And an all-party group of MPs claimed it was a “politically expedient deal”.
In his Commons speech, Mr Eustice – who is from a family of farmers – told MPs: “Overall, the truth of the matter is that the UK gave away far too much for far too little in return.
“We did not actually need to give Australia nor New Zealand full liberalisation of beef and sheep. It was not in our economic interests to do so. And neither Australia nor New Zealand had anything to offer in return for such a grand concession.
“The UK went into this negotiation holding the strongest hand, the best cards, but at some point in early summer 2021, the then trade secretary took a decision to set an arbitrary target to conclude it by G7. From that moment we were on the back foot.
“At one point the then trade secretary asked her opposite number from Australia what he would need in order to conclude an agreement by G7 and of course he then set out his terms which eventually shaped the deal. We must never repeat that mistake.”
Mr Eustice ended his speech with an astonishing broadside against Mr Falconer, in which – speaking with the benefit of parliamentary privilege – he said: “I have always been a huge fan of the British civil service.
Australian PM Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson meet ahead of announcing the deal in 2021
‘Not fit for position’
“But I do want to raise a comment about personnel within the Department for International Trade. Crawford Falconer, currently the interim permanent secretary, is not fit for that position, in my experience.
“His approach was always to internalise Australian demands, often when they were against UK interests, and his advice was invariably to retreat and make fresh concessions.
“All the while, he resented people who had a greater understanding of technical issues than he did. It was perhaps something of a surprise when he arrived from New Zealand to find that there were probably several hundred civil servants in the UK civil service who understood trade better than he did, and he has not been good, over the years, at listening to them.
“He has now done that job for several years, and it would be a good opportunity for him to move on and for us to get a different type of negotiator in place – somebody who understands British interests better than he has been able to.”
At the end of the debate, newly appointed junior trade minister Andrew Bowie hit back at Mr Eustice: “I am afraid I have to take issue and defend officials in the Department for International Trade, all of whom, without exception, are dedicated to bettering the trading relationship for this country and all of whom, without exception, have this country’s best interests at heart and are working day and night for this country.
“I should also point out that Australian and New Zealand beef and lamb suppliers are already working hard to satisfy demand from booming Asia and Pacific markets on their doorstep and New Zealand already has a significant volume of tariff-free access for lamb to the UK market, but used less than half of this quota in 2020.”
Nick Thomas-Symonds, Labour’s Shadow International Trade Secretary, commenting on George Eustice’s attack on the UK/Australia trade deal, said: “It is clear that the Conservative Government’s trade policy is in utter disarray. Even George Eustice, a Cabinet Member when the Australia Trade Deal was negotiated, has now agreed that ‘the UK gave away far too much for far too little in return’.
“He is right to condemn this Government’s approach. On trade the Conservatives have no strategy and they are – badly – letting down the UK, which will cost jobs, investment and growth. We can’t afford this Government any longer and need a general election now.”
At least 11 people have been killed and 63 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
State-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.
Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack – the fourth targeting the centre this week.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sources told Reuters news agency.
The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time).
A seperate drone strike in the southern port cuty of Tyre this morning killed one person and injured another, according to the NNA.
The blasts came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes.
Pic: AP
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
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‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
World
Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia’s ‘unstoppable’ missile – as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks
President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.
In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was used in an attack on Ukrainian city Dnipro in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.
Referring to the Oreshnik, the Russian president said: “No one in the world has such weapons.
“Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”
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Putin’s warning to the West
Russia war latest: Long-awaited US air defences arrive in Ukraine
He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”
Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.
General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.
Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”
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Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.
NATO and Ukraine are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.
Meanwhile Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following the strike on Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.
EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’
Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.
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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?
Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.
At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.
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