Trade negotiator on £260k salary has had just one meeting with Brexit adviser Olly Robbins since joining UK government 18 months ago
The Kiwi chief UK Trade Adviser has been in just two meeting with Theresa May and Liam Fox
BRITAIN’s experienced chief trade negotiator has held just one face-to-face meeting with Brexit chief Olly Robbins since joining the Government 18 months ago, The Sun can reveal.
Sources say tough-talking Kiwi Crawford Falconer, who has 25 years of negotiating trade deals across the world, has repeatedly requested meetings with Theresa May’s Brexit negotiator to offer help and advice over how to break the impasse with Brussels.
But he has been rebuffed on all but one occasion, official records reveal.
And he hasn’t held any one-to-one meetings with the PM despite being employed on a £260,000 salary to negotiate new post-Brexit trade deals.
He has sat in just two meetings with the PM and Trade Secretary Liam Fox - despite his extensive experience and £260,000 salary.
Tory Brexiteers have demanded Mr Falconer be added to the negotiating team trying to win concessions from Brussels.
Last week they claimed No10 had given them this assurance after vowing to reopen the disputed Withdrawal Agreement but he has not yet been deployed.
Ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith stepped up his demands for the PM to deploy Mr Facloner to help break the Brexit impasse.
He told The Sun: “He adds huge value given his experience and we have been promised he will play a part in the team and I hope that will now be delivered.
“He is one of the world’s experts in trade negotiations and trade deals, we’re lucky enough to have him so why shouldn’t we be using him?”
A spokesman for the Department for International Trade said: “Crawford is the Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser for our trading relationships with the rest of the world beyond Europe and he is focused on developing our independent trade policy.
“Our officials work extremely closely with counterparts across government to coordinate the UK’s exit from the EU and Crawford is no exception.”
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