Boris’s warning shot to Hammond on trade

BORIS Johnson sent a shot across the bows of Chancellor Philip Hammond yesterday as he argued Britain must begin agreeing its own free trade deals as soon as possible.

The Foreign Secretary said the transition period after we leave the EU – during which we cannot sign trade deals with non-EU countries – should not be ‘too long’.

At the Foreign Office he marked the launch of a think-tank, the Institute for Free Trade, by hailing Britain’s past as a world trading power. In Florence last week Theresa May said the transition period after we leave the EU would be about two years. Mr Hammond has enraged Eurosceptics by arguing for longer. At the launch of the think-tank, whose president is Tory MEP Daniel Hannan, Mr Johnson said: ‘When you consider what we have done in the past you can imagine what our brilliant companies are going to be able to do when they are unshackled from the coils of the common commercial policy.

‘Let’s hope the date is soon upon us without too long a transition period.’ Mr Johnson said later he would not depart from the letter or spirit of Mrs May’s speech.