Thread by @BestForBritain

Did you miss Secretary of State for International Trade & President of The Board of Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan's speech yesterday?

If you did, don't worry - we've fact checked it so you don't have to. 1/

Firstly, she celebrates Britain's leadership in creative industries - something her own government is damaging with its refusal to solve the post-Brexit problems impacting the sector. 2/
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

All year those industries have actively spoken out against the Government's Brexit policies for the damage they’ve done. 3/
tradeandbusiness.uk/news/governmen…

She said the UK's trade deals will 'level up every part of the UK' - when the Government's own analysis estimated the New Zealand deal could boost the UK economy by between 0.01% & minus 0.01%. 4/

And meanwhile the Government's domestic levelling up agenda has gone completely off the rails. 5/
theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/n…

What about the great progress we’ve made as an independent trading nation, you ask?

Well, so far the UK’s Brexit losses are more than 178 times bigger than our trade deal gains. 6/
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

That new £1 trillion export strategy? Not so new, as previous Conservative governments failed to reach the same figure set out for 2020. 7/
ft.com/content/b0d0d4…

And bigging up the UK as the most attractive destination for foreign direct investment seems dangerous when investors have pulled $9.4bn worth of funding in 2021 alone. 8/
ft.com/content/e7488b…

She says the UK is promoting green trade - we say this Government is doing the opposite.

There were no climate commitments in the Australia trade deal, and moving away from trade with our nearest neighbours could almost double UK shipping emissions. 9/
tradeandbusiness.uk/news/replacing…

Trevelyan was right when she said the UK was the world's second-largest services exporter.

But since the Brexit referendum, aggregate service exports have dropped, according to this @UKTradeBusiness session - a loss of £113bn per year from 2016-2019. 10/

https://twitter.com/UKTradeBusiness/status/1461357766975504386

As for our world-leading financial services industry?

Without much-needed regulation post-Brexit, the cross border payments industry has been described as a potential “breeding ground for financial crime”. 11/

cityam.com/post-brexit-pa…

We're not so sure the Secretary of State for International Trade’s song of stability, security and success stands up to scrutiny.

To quote @DavidHenigUK: “Who needs a strategy for the country when you can string some buzzwords together and call that a strategy?” 12/12