Chief trade negotiator: UK had little influence before Brexit vote

Sam Lowe, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform and a member of the government's Strategic Trade Advisory Group, told Sky News that trade policy remained "in a state of flux" and that he was "not sure it's true" to say that Britain's influence had grown.

Mr Lowe said: "The UK right now is not viewed as a bastion of free trade. Brexit is viewed as protectionism - we're putting up barriers to trade with our biggest market. There's some hope that the UK might move into this role in the future, but to be honest, until the relationship with the EU is settled, people are just holding their breath."

But Mr Lowe told Sky News that Britain was "still in a state of flux" over trade policy and added that "I'm not sure that it would be true to say that the UK has become more influential since Brexit".

He added: "To the outside observer, it looks like we've been caught up in the Trump wave, where we are putting up barriers to trade rather than pulling them down. But it's not to say that were the UK to embrace the role of liberalising that we couldn't play a constructive role in the future."