Brexit superwoman: Kemi Badenoch targets £61 BILLION trade deal with six mega-rich Gulf states
Kemi Badenoch predicts that the UK's future outside the EU will be a 'roaring success'
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Kemi Badenoch predicts that the UK's future outside the EU will be a “roaring success” as she pursues a deal with six Gulf states which could “bring in billions” of pounds of investment into Britain.
It follows a winning trade deal with economic powerhouses on the Pacific Rim - and she has vowed to seize new opportunities.
Badenoch believes the UK has the chance to build a high-skills, high-wage economy that will flourish beyond Brussels’ control.
"None of these deals would have been possible without Brexit, and this Government is ensuring we make it a roaring success!” she told the Express.
Badenoch believes the UK has the chance to build a high-skills, high-wage economy
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“The first aim of Brexit was to leave the European Union – we did that. The second aim was to seize the opportunities of leaving the EU, which we’re doing.”
The Business Secretary is set to fly to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to hold talks this week with ministers from the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council.
Describing her mission to shred red tape at home while opening up new markets abroad, she said: “We are taking back control of our laws so that rules are made in Britain, not Brussels.
"But to really grab those benefits, I’m making sure we reform the EU laws to reduce red tape and give our businesses an even better chance to succeed.”
Total trade between the UK and these countries reached a record high of £61.3billion in 2022.
Badenoch says the UK has made history by winning membership of a giant trade bloc of Pacific-facing countries, and insists that it's just the start of a new era in Britain’s story as a trading nation.
She said: “Earlier this year I announced we will join the CPTPP – a huge trade bloc of dynamic Indo-Pacific countries that will account for the majority of global economic growth.
"Last week, I started trade talks with Switzerland, another European country outside the EU who have used their independence to grow the high-skills, high-wage economy that we can emulate.”
Badenoch says the UK has made history by winning membership of a giant trade bloc of Pacific-facing countries
PA
Badenoch’s department considers Britain a “global services superpower” but critics of Brexit often blame the country’s departure from the EU for deepening economic challenges.
It comes after GB News Nigel Farage said that “Brexit has failed”, adding that while he did not think the country would be better off in the EU, politicians had “mismanaged this totally”.
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said that work to make the most of Brexit should have started earlier and gone faster but the country “lost a year or two because of Covid”.
But, insisted that Britain is “getting Brexit done” and that the country should soon see “real rewards”.