‘Empire’ set-back

Prime Minister Theresa May’s belief that the Commonwealth might rescue Britain from the big hole that will be left when we quit the European Union has been holed below the waterline.

Plans for a new, non-imperial British trading empire have been further sabotaged by the embarrassing news that the Home Office may have unlawfully deported Commonwealth immigrants from the Caribbean who came off the Empire Windrush but whose citizenship rights were never properly recorded. Not really the best way to strengthen relations with potential trading partners.

The Commonwealth has more than two billion people, and a few member states, such as India, are rapidly expanding markets. Ripe, thinks the government, for a bit of commercial arm-twisting. The 53 nations of the Commonwealth account for just 9 per cent of the UK’S global trade whereas the EU takes up 43 per cent – some great potential to do more here in terms of boosting trade, one would think.

Probably not a great deal more, however, because many of the Commonwealth countries count as developing countries that already get privileged access to the EU (and the UK) at low or nil tariffs for most of the stuff they sell.

Their main concern about Brexit is preserving privileged access to the UK when we leave the EU customs union. However, for the likes of India the attraction of the UK is not as a product marketplace but as a place to get training, jobs and work experience that can then be re-exported back to Indian software and professional service companies.

As the residue of an almostforgotten empire, the Commonwealth has no trading significance. It served its purpose as a place where Britain could once sell its manufactured goods, free of real competition. Those days are long gone. There is no reason, for example, for Caribbean nations to look across the Atlantic to Britain when the world’s biggest commercial market is in their backyard.

Brexit is not a Commonwealth problem and there is no reason why the Commonwealth must provide a solution.

ALEX ORR Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh