The Sunday Express wildly exaggerated Kemi Badenoch’s latest underwhelming trade deal
The Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Kemi Badenoch, has been popping up all over the place, crowing about her latest ‘achievement’ – signing the UK up for membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership – the CPTPP.
📣 BREAKING NEWS: The UK has now officially joined the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Joining CPTPP will give UK businesses new opportunities in the dynamic Indo-Pacific region.
Read more 👉 https://t.co/5kuWlpedem pic.twitter.com/ytlPMRa2E7
— Department for Business and Trade (@biztradegovuk) July 16, 2023
It consists of 11 other countries, only one of which wasn’t already in a trade deal with the UK, and is predicted – according to government figures – to bring in a whopping £1.8 billion …over 10 years. Oh!
Kemi Badenoch is right to celebrate the CPTPP trade deal. It will boost GDP by 0.08%, so we only need another 49 deals like that to make up for the 4% of GDP that Brexit has cost us.#BBCLauraK
— Parody Rishi Sunak (@Parody_PM) July 16, 2023
It sounds like a lot of money, in fact it is a lot of money, but not compared to the costs of running a country. HS2 alone is predicted to cost between $40 and $44 billion.
The news was met with levels of scorn previously reserved for, well, the other post-Brexit trade deals.
BREAKING: Kemi Badenoch has signed a trade deal with Cynthia from Aberystwyth who has a whole wardrobe full of coat hangers
— dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 (@mrdavemacleod) July 16, 2023
● Another pointless trade deal signed purely as a smokescreen to conceal the idiocy of Brexit.
● Government's own figures suggest a boost of just 0.08% over 15 years.
● Meanwhile the main beneficiary is… Malaysian palm oil exportshttps://t.co/jlnikRVmHs pic.twitter.com/PC3TiPd0gy
— Otto English (@Otto_English) July 17, 2023
Tory MP Kemi Badenoch on the CPTPP trade deal: “It’s a momentous occasion, we’re here so proud, so excited”
How the Asian press see it…#BBCLauraK pic.twitter.com/ylqpCYRoT3
— David (@Zero_4) July 16, 2023
We may not gain anything from the CPTPP deal, but Malaysia will gain tariff free exports of palm oil to the UK. So at least we're doing our bit to destroy the rainforests. pic.twitter.com/rkNijXxd8d
— Parody Rishi Sunak (@Parody_PM) July 16, 2023
I’m just hearing that Kemi Badenoch has signed a trade deal with King’s Landing.
— Simon Harris – Man Behaving Dadly (THAT’S DADLY) (@simonharris_mbd) July 16, 2023
“Right Balders, let’s try again. If you leave one trading bloc & it costs you 80 beans, but you join another and you earn 4 beans, what do you have?“
'A significant milestone for UK trade!’#CPTPP #GTTO #SocialistSunday pic.twitter.com/qRexlEBHPg
— Mike Bealing (@Sillytees) July 16, 2023
Kemi Bedenoch has quite rightly announced this CPTPP trade deal as historic and exciting.
It is worth an enormous 0.08% of GDP. That’s 50x less than the EU was worth but it gives Kemi more exotic travel opportunities.
Plus Asia is really excited about it as you can see here: pic.twitter.com/lkSxKtsUz1
— Conservatives (@TheBigCons) July 16, 2023
The Sunday Express, however, heralded it like a lottery win for the country – though not the Euromillions, obviously.
Sunday Express Front Page: £12 Trillion Brexit Trade Boost #TomorrowsPapersToday https://t.co/97TjyPT396 pic.twitter.com/MtMbVw0SQg
— Daily Express (@Daily_Express) July 15, 2023
The $12 trillion figure, however, wasn’t the predicted benefit to the UK. Not even close.
The Sunday Express is misleading its readers, to put it lightly
Claims CPTPP is a £12 trillion trade deal
That figure is the combined GDP of all CPTPP members
The real gain is 0.1% of GDP, after ten years – or £1.7 billion
As you can see, a somewhat smaller figure#CPTPP pic.twitter.com/37OnAOFnTg
— Louis 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 〓〓 💙 Defend the right to vote (@LouisHenwood) July 16, 2023
Tweeters had plenty to say on the matter.
1.
Silly. The GDP of all countries in the bloc they’re referencing amounts to 12 trillion.
Someone tell The Express we don’t get to take it all.
P.S If you combine the GDP of all the countries in the EU, it amounts to 16.6 trillion.
By their logic that’s what we’ve lost 🙄 pic.twitter.com/xyHpaKq9qg
— Jemma Forte (@jemmaforte) July 16, 2023
2.
This paper is not well. https://t.co/9afL1BU58D
— ALASTAIR CAMPBELL (@campbellclaret) July 16, 2023
3.
Ludicrous £12 trn CTTP number given by Tories
FACTS
From gov report 2021
"could lead to a £1.8 billion increase in GDP by 2030" ie 0.08%
UK regions eg West Midlands could be up £177million
WOW almost as much as Michelle Mone got from PPE contracts!!https://t.co/POCPjFbp8Y pic.twitter.com/KAShJDlt2U— Carol Vorderman (@carolvorders) July 16, 2023
4.
this sounds good pic.twitter.com/1Jgl0Ty21J
— Jim Pickard 🐋 (@PickardJE) July 16, 2023
5.
The people scoffing at the scale of this CPTPP deal will be laughing on the other side of their faces when 12 seconds is taken off their average journey time on the A303. https://t.co/MIXgmrduJU pic.twitter.com/kkCqvArSEQ
— HENRY MORRIS 🇬🇧 (@secrettory12) July 16, 2023
6.
everyone should give the Express a break it was just a typo they didn't mean to write £12 trillion they meant to write 12p #cpttp pic.twitter.com/8HaqzWW3gi
— dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 (@mrdavemacleod) July 16, 2023
7.
🎶come with me, and you’ll be, in a world of pure imagination🎶 pic.twitter.com/4m3xYOQzVu
— Toby Earle 🇺🇦 (@TobyonTV) July 16, 2023
8.
Breaking: Kimi Badenoch signs £12 trillion deal with Rob’s cousin in Australia to supply home made jam.
“Take that EU” said some Express readers earlier today.
— Rob B (@RobBfromDerby) July 16, 2023
9.
– Kemi Badenoch sells something on eBay
– Sunday Express: £25billion online trade boost! pic.twitter.com/F6huzpopI4— Matt Green (@mattgreencomedy) July 16, 2023
10.
Express writers "calculating" the benefits of Brexit. pic.twitter.com/eOdE357735
— Femi (@Femi_Sorry) July 16, 2023
11.
Sunday Express going for most misleading headline of 2023.
According to UK Government modelling, long term this trade deal could increase UK GDP by £1.8 billion. That's 0.015% of the figure in the headline.
Perpetuating the Brexit con and treating their readers like idiots. pic.twitter.com/vJdLqC9YKa
— sean coffey (@akaseano) July 15, 2023
12.
So we have to put up with another round of hyperventilating excitement about CPTPP from the Brexit clowns and their comic, the Express. Laughably wild exaggerations from people who routinely lie to us to deny the profound damage they’ve done to our country. A fanfare for failure.
— sarah murphy (@13sarahmurphy) July 16, 2023
13.
Does the Express think all the countries in the CPTPP will send their GDP to the UK? pic.twitter.com/j4cN71gwV9
— Bella Wallersteiner 🇺🇦 (@BellaWallerstei) July 16, 2023
14.
Imagine you have £1,000,000 in the bank, and then someone gives you £1.
That's not a £1,000,001 deal just because the amount you end up with is £1,000,001.
It's a £1 deal.
Same level of deceit being perpetrated here. £12 trillion is the combined GDP of all CPTPP members. pic.twitter.com/y023IOUyqx
— Edwin Hayward (@edwinhayward) July 16, 2023
15.
Come on @DavidWooding. It's your splash. Unpack it for us. (Note: as Pippa says below it's actually worth .08% of GDP). https://t.co/1ii8yR9Aka
— Jay Rayner (@jayrayner1) July 16, 2023
16.
This is basically like someone saying "I've accessed the £50 million prize fund" from the lottery when they've won a tenner. https://t.co/iboLWmZXLH
— IanWatoop (@IanWatoop) July 16, 2023
To sum up –
If a paper…
Or a TV channel
Or a politician
Or a commentator
…is happy to tell you the Govt has signed an £11tn trade deal
When it’s actually worth £1.7bn
Over ten years
It’s because they’re relying on you being stupid enough to believe them
Don’t be.
— Marina Purkiss (@MarinaPurkiss) July 16, 2023
READ MORE
There are not enough faces to palm for this Express front page – 12 scathing responses
Source The Express Image The Express, Screengrab
