Theresa May denies playing catch up as she announces post-Brexit African trade deal

The prime minister danced with African school children and made announcements on aid, foreign slavery and financial crime

Theresa May has denied claims she is playing catch up in the race for African trade, after announcing the UK’s first post-Brexit deal with six nations on the continent.

The prime minister argued the agreement replicating one that already exists with the EU showed the UK was forging a new “partnership for the future”.

But her trip – the first from a UK leader in five years – comes against the backdrop of multiple visits from French and Chinese leaders.

The first 24 hours of Ms May’s tour saw her dancing with African school children and making announcements on aid, foreign slavery and financial crime.

The prime minister used a speech to confirm plans to carry over the EU’s Economic Partnership Agreement with the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) and Mozambique.

She also said £300m of commercial deals will be signed during her visit and £5.5bn in export financing provided to boost UK-Africa trade.

But challenged in Cape Town over the lack of British trade diplomacy from prime ministers in recent years, she denied that the UK was “late to the party”.

The PM said: “I think if you just look at the number of visits that the former foreign secretary made just last year to Africa is an example of that.

“We have been working with African nations and African governments in the past.

“What I’m talking about today is a new partnership for the future recognising the challenges that we both face.”

Nonetheless, French presidents had visited Africa 27 times since 2010, with Emmanuel Macron having done eight, and China’s President Xi has been to Africa 79 times since 2007.

Even as Ms May goes about her visit here the spectre of Britain’s competitors looms, with President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya squeezing his meeting with her on a day between face-to-face time with US leader Donald Trump and Mr Xi.

Countries in the SACU agreement include Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, with Mozambique also included in the pact with the EU that the UK will take on.

Britain plans to take on all of the EU’s current trade deals after Brexit with agreement of the other countries involved, but the announcement that the first has been locked in will be a boost to Ms May.

She added that the UK would invest an additional £4bn in African economies, with the hope of further investment from the private sector to come.

The PM had already let it be known that she was preparing to use the UK’s aid and development spending to support Britain’s private sector in making greater investment in the continent.

She added: “And to help bring those investments about, I can today announce an additional £4bn programme of UK investment in African economies that will pave the way for at least another £4bn of private sector financing.”

Earlier in the day, Ms May somewhat awkwardly danced with school children as part of her charm offensive and was later photographed surrounded by the smiling pupils.

“I suspect my dancing this morning might not make it on to Strictly,” she told the BBC later.

Theresa May was also set to unveil a series of measures to cut illegal and unsafe migration into Europe from West Africa and support victims of modern slavery as she heads to Nigeria on Wednesday.

Nigeria is the fifth-largest country of origin for victims of modern slavery in Britain with adults and children tricked into journeys to Europe that can lead to abuse, trauma and prostitution, officials said.

Measures she was to announce included helping some 1,700 migrants and modern slavery victims to return to Nigeria with counselling to deal with the distress of their ordeal and a UK-funded HQ of a border taskforce at Lagos airport.

She also announced that later in the week the UK will be signing a new agreement to repatriate money illegally removed from Kenya allowing it to be returned to its “rightful owners”.