Liam Fox

Trade justice campaigners have welcomed the government's defeat over Amendment 12 to the Trade Bill in the House of Lords. A cross-party amendment to give parliament the power to hold the government to account for its trade policy was passed by 215 votes to 168.

The Department for International Trade has today set out a woeful set of proposals for the scrutiny of trade deals after Brexit, campaign group Global Justice Now has said. It follows a written statement by the secretary of state, Liam Fox, designed to allow the government’s Trade Bill to proceed in the House of Lords.

An amendment by Caroline Lucas MP (NC3) to give parliament control of post-Brexit trade deals was defeated by 30 votes in the House of Commons this afternoon as MPs debated the Trade Bill. Other amendments to give devolved administrations statutory powers over trade were also defeated before the Trade Bill debate moved on to discuss the customs unions

Campaign groups Global Justice Now and War on Want have condemned Liam Fox’s transparency concessions on the Trade Bill ahead of tomorrow’s Third Reading as inadequate, following Liam Fox’s statement to parliament this afternoon.

Liam Fox’s mission to Washington DC appeared to end in failure yesterday, as no progress was made in his attempt to be granted an exemption to Donald Trump’s steel tariffs. Having labelled the tariffs "absurd" on BBC Question Time last week and boasted they were the reason for his trip to Washington, Fox's statement on the talks consigned the issue to a virtual footnote.