Daily Mail: BBC accused of talking down Britain's new trade deal by Conservatives

Story from Daily Mail:

A new impartiality row hit the BBC last night after the Conservatives accused the corporation of talking down a major new trade deal.

Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg to 'stop interrupting' as she outlined the benefit of joining the bloc of 11 Asia and Pacific nations.

Britain is the first European nation to sign up to the trans-Pacific pact, taking UK businesses a step closer to being able to sell to a market of half-a-billion people with fewer barriers.

But the Conservatives accused the corporation of downplaying membership of the bloc and pooh-poohing Britain's biggest trade deal since leaving the EU on the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show, plus in news bulletins and online yesterday.

On Radio 4's 8am news, a BBC correspondent said: 'Britain's short-term gains from a trade club with 500million people across the Indo-Pacific region are likely to be fairly small.

'The Government's own calculations suggest the deal will increase the UK's income by less than 1 per cent in a decade's time.'

An article on the BBC website claimed that the short-term gains of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) were 'marginal'.

It added: 'In total, the CPTPP accounted for 8 per cent of UK exports in 2019 – less than we sold to Germany.' The article concluded that joining the pact was 'a mainly symbolic win for post-Brexit Britain', although it acknowledged it could eventually 'yield considerable rewards'.

Mrs Badenoch was in New Zealand at the weekend to sign the formal confirmation of the UK's membership, which was reached in March after two years of talks.

Britain and the other 11 CPTPP members will now begin work to ratify the deal. Officials estimate it will come into force in the second half of 2024, when businesses can start to benefit from it.

In her interview with Ms Kuenssberg, the minister hit back at claims there was no sign of a US trade deal, that a pact with India had 'stalled' and 'the Brexit promise of a buccaneering Britain' had not come to pass.

Mrs Badenoch said: 'Laura, please stop interrupting me. You said that trade talks with India had stalled, that is not true.

'These things take time because if we get them wrong you would be accusing me of signing deals that were not worth the paper they were written on.'

Delays on the line between London and Auckland perhaps contributed to the slightly tetchy exchange. Ms Kuenssberg also questioned if Britons should care about the deal and if they would feel any economic benefit.

Mrs Badenoch replied: 'We need to remember that there are 11 countries in there who are making up about 500million people. That's so, so much potential.

'You look at the countries that are queuing up. The US was going to join until they had a change of administration. They're not doing free trade agreements any more but we are. This is global Britain, the world is our oyster, we're not isolated, we're not insular.'

A Conservative source said: 'Seven years on and the BBC still haven't come to terms with the referendum result.

'This deal is with some of the fastest-growing and most innovative economies in the world but still they long to be shackled to Brussels, taking rules and with the borders open.

'BBC bosses need to understand that licence fee-payers don't all share their disdain for everything without an EU flag on it.'

Former trade secretary Liam Fox, who started the consultation to join the CPTPP, described the deal as 'historic'. He added: 'Let's celebrate this great achievement.'

A BBC spokesman said: 'Laura was asking fair, robust questions as she would have any interviewee. During the interview, she clearly acknowledged that the agreement is the biggest deal the UK has signed since Brexit.'