Ex-Aussie PM gets trade role despite storm over ‘sexism’
THE former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott was last night appointed as a British trade adviser amid claims that he is homophobic and misogynistic.
Boris Johnson had defended Mr Abbott just hours before confirming his appointment to the Board of Trade.
Australia, where Mr Abbott was prime minister from 2013-15, is one the nations with which the UK is conducting negotiations on post-Brexit trade agreements.
Reports of his expected appointment this week provoked an immediate backlash over his previous controversial comments, including climate change scepticism and a belief that coronavirus restrictions should be lifted.
Even some Conservative MPs had opposed the appointment.
Caroline Nokes, Tory chairman of the women and equalities select committee, said before it was confirmed: ‘I just don’t think this is a man who should be anywhere near our Board of Trade.’ Describing the move as ‘awful’, she added: ‘Is he the sort of man I want to be representing us globally? No.’
Asked yesterday about claims that Mr Abbott, 62, is a sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, climate change denier, Mr Johnson said: ‘I don’t, obviously don’t agree with those sentiments at all, but then I don’t agree with everyone who serves the Government in an unpaid capacity on hundreds of boards across the country.
‘What I would say about Tony Abbott is this is a guy who was elected by the people of the great liberal democratic nation of Australia… That speaks for itself.’
The Department for International Trade announced last night that London-born Mr Abbott – who moved to Australia when he was two – will form part of the Board of Trade in an unpaid role.
Trade Secretary Liz Truss said the board ‘will play an important role in helping Britain make the case for free and fair trade across the UK and around the world’.
Labour MP David Lammy immediately tweeted in response: ‘Earlier in the week the Government as much as admitted Tony Abbott is a homophobe and a misogynist. They just don’t care.’
Earlier prominent LGBT figures including Sir Ian McKellen signed an open letter alongside environmental activists to criticise Mr Abbott’s record, saying he ‘is not fit to be representing the UK’.
Mr Abbott has previously said he felt ‘a bit threatened’ by homosexuality and was accused of misogyny by fellow ex-Australian prime minister Julia Gillard.
But he has been defended by his gay sister Christine Forster, who tweeted that he is neither a homophobe nor a misogynist.