The latest stance from the extreme Brexiteer community is that we don’t need any form of trade deal with the European Union. Operating under WTO rules would be just fine. There is only one logical conclusion to be drawn from this stance. In trade terms, we don’t need to leave the EU at all.

One of the main pieces of rhetoric from the Leave campaign, and from the Brexiteers thereafter, is that it is imperative that we leave the EU in order to build what was labelled as ‘Global Britain’. This represented a view where, freed from the EU’s shackles, we are able to strike trade deals far and wide thereby propelling British prosperity into the stratosphere.

Now we are told that trade deals are, in fact, redundant. We can be just as prosperous, if not more, if we trade with our biggest trading partner under WTO rules. Naturally, that must also mean that trade deals with the rest of the world are also redundant. Surely we can trade with everybody under WTO rules and be just as prosperous. As an EU member state, the UK has always had the opportunity to trade with whoever it likes under WTO rules – and indeed has done so for decades. So why leave the EU when seemingly there are no benefits to be had from trade deals?

Global Britain, it seems, does not need trade deals. That reason for dropping out of the EU therefore becomes irrelevant. The bright spot from such an argument is that Dr Fox and his department can be eliminated forthwith. Maybe that would free up some more money for the NHS?

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