Liam Fox tries for Davos trade deals in between shaking a fist for Brexit as corporates walk away

The trade secretary said delayng Brexit would be worse than no deal. The behaviour of big companies shows they think otherwise

Liam Fox, the International Trade Secretary, has been issuing warnings about the danger of delaying Brexit on the BBC again when he’s actually supposed to be in Davos banging the drum for trade deals that have proved something of a challenge to get moving.

Part of the reason for his making a noise is perhaps because the timing of the trip could hardly have been worse. It came a day after arch Brexiteer Sir James Dyson unveiled plans to ship the gizmo maker’s corporate HQ to Singapore. The company claimed this had nothing to do with Brexit. That was approached with some scepticism.

Meanwhile, P&O replaced the British flag with that of Cyprus for its ships’ registration bringing an end to nearly two centuries of history, Sony confirmed plans to move its European HQ from London to Amsterdam, Pets at Home and Dixons Carphone outlined stockpiling measures to protect them from the kicking Mr Fox and his chums seem bent on delivering.

The trade generalissimo’s Davos press notice nonetheless contained some fancy figures about the UK’s past attractiveness as a destination for foreign direct investment, from Deloitte and the UN.

Of course, the UK was in the EU when those investments were made. And these sort of figures are very dependent on the methodology used by which organisation is putting them together. A report from the OECD on the same subject revealed FDI fell sharply between 2016 and 2017. The release didn’t mention that. But as one Tory MP said of Fox: “He has never been very good at detail."

Still, that didn’t stop him from stamping his little feet. Parliament’s attempt to take control of Brexit, and the possible delay as a result, would be a worse than no deal, he declared.

Corporate Britain has been saying otherwise for some time now, and lately it has started voting with its feet.

As yet, the moves are mostly technical, although it’s notable that drugs group AstraZeneca has suspended investment and none of our big car makers seem minded to put any new money in given the threat no deal poses to their supply chains.

There have already been some Brexit job losses, and Fox bears a share of the responsibility for them. But they have rather resembled the trailers you see before big Hollywood disaster movies.

When the main feature starts, Fox will presumably bluster some more. That will come as slim comfort for those affected, but expecting anything better from this ministerial code breaker (that should be repeated every time he opens his mouth with the thinly veiled Brexit threats he’s been making) is probably a bit too much to ask for.

Let’s face it, this is the man who claimed doing a deal with the EU would be the “easiest thing in human history” during the EU referendum campaign.

He also promised that the government would agree 40 free trade deals with other non-EU countries the minute Britain left the EU too.

That happening is very much open to question. The Davos jaunt, we are told, is part of the “drive to get deals over the line in the run-up to Brexit”. The Trade department also droned on about “significant progress” having been made in “finalising continuity trade agreements”. But all this is in the absence of any final agreement with the UK’s biggest trading partner: Europe. .

Meanwhile Fox unveiled Free Trade is GREAT - look, look capital letters - branding, with Britain due to leave the largest free trading area the world has ever seen. There’s that detail again.

Did someone say “charlatan”?