UK's May to champion free trade in post-Brexit, Trump era

UK Prime Minister Theresa May will set out her vision of Britain in a post-Brexit world on Monday night, arguing for free trade in response to the election of the protectionist Donald Trump as US President.

Trump repeatedly criticised free trade deals during his election campaign, saying they had harmed US workers and industries.

May, who will deliver a speech to the Lord Mayor's banquet, is expected to say that free trade and globalisation can work for all members of society, according to extracts of her speech released by her office.

“Not standing inflexibly, refusing to change and still fighting the battles of the past, but adapting to the moment, evolving our thinking and seizing the opportunities ahead. That is the kind of leadership we need today. And I believe that it is Britain's historic global opportunity to provide it," May will say.

May will also say that the UK can "show the world that we can be the strongest global advocate for free markets and free trade because we believe they are the best way to lift people out of poverty ... but that we can also do much more to ensure the prosperity they provide is shared by all".

"To be the true global champion of free trade in this new modern world, we also need to do something to help those families and communities who can actually lose out from it."

She is also under pressure to reaffirm the UK's “special relationship” with the US after UKIP leader Nigel Farage became the first British politician to meet Trump.

Apart from the embarrassment of seeing Farage and Trump being photographed together, May has had to contend with criticism from her own party over attacks on Trump by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and one of her own joint chiefs of staff Nick Timothy.

On Brexit, May will say that the UK Britain has an opportunity “to show that our departure from the European Union is not – as some people have wrongly argued – Britain stepping back from the world, but an example of how a free, flexible, ambitious country can step up to a new global role in which alongside the traditional trading blocs; agile nation states like Britain can trade freely with others according to what’s in their own best interests and those of their people”.