Trade - and lizards - ‘top of the agenda’ for Johnson

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has arrived in Australia on the latest leg of his extended overseas mission to drum up trade deals for the UK after Brexit.

Mr Johnson will meet his opposite number Julie Bishop and join Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon to take part in the annual Aukmin summit of UK and Australian ministers to discuss defence and foreign affairs tomorrow.

But he said post-brexit trade will be “top of the agenda” for the three-day visit, which follows stops in Japan and New Zealand.

Before flying to Australia, Mr Johnson toured the Zealandia wildlife sanctuary for indigenous species near Kiwi capital Wellington, where he held a tuatara lizard and took snaps of the flightless takahe bird on his smartphone.