New Trade Secretary Liam Fox is secretly recorded claiming Britain is 'too lazy' and our businessmen are 'far more interested in playing golf than securing overseas trade'

There's a lot of truth in what he says -- and he is in a position to know -- but he wouldn't say it publically

Liam Fox has been covertly recorded attacking British businessmen for being more interested in playing golf than securing overseas trade.

In unguarded remarks, the Trade Secretary said Britain had become 'too lazy, and too fat on our successes in previous generations'.

Last night his comments were firmly slapped down by No 10 – the third time he has been rebuked in barely two months. It said Dr Fox was expressing a personal view and not that of the Government.

Dr Fox made his made remarks on Thursday night during a drinks reception for the Right-wing Conservative Way Forward group, a recording of which was obtained by The Times. In an attack on the firms whose interests he is paid to represent, he 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.'

SOURCE