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Britain is too lazy and too fat, says Pro-Brexit trade minister
LONDON: Has Britain become too fat and too lazy, and are British company executives more interested in playing golf on Friday afternoons than to export?
LONDON: Has Britain become too fat and too lazy, and are British company executives more interested in playing golf on Friday afternoons than to export?
Something similar was said by Indian businessman Ratan Tata in 2011 while acquiring steel major Corus and the iconic automotive company Jaguar Land Rover, sparking a row.
Now, Liam Fox, a leading Brexiteer and secretary for international trade, has echoed his views, provoking another controversy.
In remarks recorded at a Conservative group and reported by The Times on Saturday, Fox said: “This country is not the free- trading nation that it once was. We have become too lazy, and too fat on our successes in previous generations”.
“What is the point of us reshaping global trade, what is the point of us going out and looking for new markets for the United Kingdom, if we don’t have the exporters to fill those markets?”
“We’ve got to change the culture in our country. People have got to stop thinking about exporting as an opportunity and start thinking about it as a duty — companies who could be contributing to our national prosperity but choose not to because it might be too difficult or too time-consuming or because they can’t play golf on a Friday afternoon.”
The remarks evoked furious reactions from the opposition Labour and British trade and industry, while Downing Street said the views were Fox’s own and did not represent those of the Theresa May government.
Prominent entrepreneur Richard Reed took to BBC Radio 4 to term Fox’s comments “disgusting”, adding that he has never played golf.
Reed said: “He is a representative of us, of this country, and he turns round and slags us off, calling us fat and lazy. He’s never done a day’s business in his life...I just think: ‘how dare he talk down the country that he damaged, how dare he’. He’s a terrible, terrible voice for British business.”
Labour MP Chuka Umunna said Fox’s comments were “a complete disgrace, coming from the man supposed to be promoting our businesses globally”, adding that UK businesses deserved an apology.
In an interview to The Times, Tata had said in 2011: “It’s a work ethic issue. In my experience, in both Corus and JLR, nobody is willing to go the extra mile, nobody. I feel if you have come from Bombay to have a meeting and the meeting goes till 6pm, I would expect that you won’t, at 5 o’clock, say, ‘Sorry, I have my train to catch. I have to go home.’ Friday, from 3.30pm, you can’t find anybody in their office.”
After the remarks provoked a row, Tata Sons explained that Tata was referring to the work ethics at Corus and Jaguar Land Rover at the time they were acquired by the Tata group. Things had changed after the change of management, it said.
