Foreign Office defends Raab remarks on trade with rights abusers

Foreign secretary has said deals should not be limited to countries with European-level standards of rights

Dominic Raab has tried to fend off claims he told Foreign Office staff the UK intended to trade with countries with poor human rights records.

In a leaked recording of a briefing by the foreign secretary, passed to HuffPost, he reportedly said: I squarely believe we ought to be trading liberally around the world. If we restrict it to countries with European convention on human rights-level standards of human rights, we're not going to do many trade deals with the growth markets of the future."