London: Theresa May pitched a post-Brexit Britain as the champion of globalisation and free trade, saying she wanted to defend the “rules-based international system.”
“The UK will step up to a new leadership role as the strongest and most forceful advocate for free markets and free trade anywhere in the world,” the prime minister said in a speech to the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.
May was speaking two days after setting out a strategy for leaving the European Union that would see Britain no longer a member of its single market and customs union, and instead possibly paying for access. Her tone was strikingly different from the speech she made to her Conservative Party conference in October, when she attacked those who see themselves as “citizens of the world.”
Where she did echo that speech was in her warning to audience members that they couldn’t continue business strategies of exploiting workers and avoiding taxes. She warned that voters are angry about a system where “those who prosper play by a different set of rules, while for many life remains a struggle,” calling for “responsive, responsible leadership.”
“We have to step up and take control to ensure that free trade and globalisation work for everyone,” she said.
— Bloomberg
