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Only one person on the UK’s Brexit negotiation team has experience in brokering trade deals.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox was asked by campaign group Open Britain how many officials in his department had previous involvement in something like the discussions to leave the EU .

Mr Fox could only name Crawford Falconer, the Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser and Second Permanent Secretary.

The Department for International Trade also said it did not know how many of its staff spoke Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese or Arabic, languages needed for deals with South America, and the Far and Middle East .

(Image: Getty)

Open Britain says this is the result of the new department sourcing its 3,400 staff from within the civil service.

Labour MP Pat McFadden said: “Liam Fox seems to be a man of solitude.

“We were promised he will negotiate a free trade area ten times the size of the EU by next September. He and his lone trade negotiator will be busy.”

International Trade Minister Greg Hands said his department “has a strong and capable trade policy team. Mr Falconer has more than 25 years of public service experience in trade and foreign affairs.”