Mr Dowden insisted the Government must not secure any trade deal that comes along, but instead hold out for one that best meets Britain’s terms. The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: “We can’t just take a deal at any cost.”
He added he believes the UK will be able to secure a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU.
Lisa Nandy, Shadow Foreign Secretary, hit out the Government’s progress in securing a Brexit deal so far.
The Wigan MP said: “You said you would deliver an oven-ready Brexit deal, but you forgot to turn the oven on.
“And here we are, a year later, and you’ve made precisely zero progress.”
Mr Dowden hit back, stating that Labour’s position could land the UK with a deal that would not be in the national interest.
He said: “The key thing is, it cannot be a deal at any price, and what I worry about from what Lisa’s saying is, if we say ‘we’ve just got to get a deal,’ then we end up surrendering national interests.
READ: Brexit talks break up without agreement despite weeks of intensified negotiations
Question Time host Fiona Bruce pushed back against this, saying such a trading relationship would be the same as “no-deal”.
The host added: “We were told this would be the easiest deal in history.”
Mr Dowden said the UK had “huge opportunities” for trading internationally now that it has left the European Union, in areas such as the digital economy – an area for which he is responsible.
He said opportunities for trading including flows of data between world powers such as the US, China, and India.
The culture secretary concluded: “The best way to get a future trading relationship that is in the interests of the United Kingdom is to be willing to say ‘we won’t have a deal at any cost’.
“I still believe we can get that deal, but we have to hang firm and be clear that we will get the right deal.”
Social media users similarly clashed over the episode. One backed Mr Dowden, writing: “Labour would give the EU everything they asked for, is what that means.”
Others hit out at the BBC host’s input, with one noting: “Fiona Bruce once again aggressively talking over the Government minister”.
And some expressed doubt that data trading and financial services would be beneficial to the UK’s economy.
One viewer wrote on Twitter: “What a farce. Financial services won’t save the economy.”
