Aussie counterpart backs Hammond

AUSTRALIAN Treasurer Scott Morrison voiced his support for Chancellor Philip Hammond yesterday by suggesting he “certainly wouldn’t want his job”.

While Mr Morrison refused to back Theresa May’s Chequers plan for Brexit, he did back the Prime Minister and his counterpart, Mr Hammond, in the Brexit negotiations.

“One of the things I learn when I go to the G20 is there are some people’s jobs I certainly wouldn’t want,” said Mr Morrison.

“This is a very challenging issue for the UK Government and I commend Chancellor Hammond and Prime Minister May for dealing with what is a very challenging set of circumstances.

“I know they are applying themselves fully in what is a very difficult challenge that is very important for the global economy, the European economy, the British economy, and I’ve been impressed with the way that Chancellor Hammond has been applying himself.”

Mr Morrison’s reluctance to back the much-criticised Chequers plan comes after concerns in Australia and among UK Brexiteers that it would prevent a free-trade deal.

Australia, along with the US and New Zealand, is at the front of the queue for such an arrangement with Britain when it is free of Brussels rule.

However, there are concerns that the Chequers plan – which commits Britain to a common rule book with the EU on goods – will make it impossible to make free-trade deals with the rest of the world and leave the UK as a “vassal state” to the EU.