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| - Australia's right-wing former prime minister Tony Abbott Monday defended his "convictions" after reports that he will become a British trade envoy sparked criticism of him as a "climate change-denying, Trump-worshipping misogynist". Speaking in London after obtaining special permission to leave Australia under its coronavirus lockdown rules, Abbott was asked about the reports that he will join Britain's Board of Trade to help strike post-Brexit deals. He told the right-of-centre Policy Exchange think-tank: "Obviously I can't comment on any position which is not yet official." But he added: "Inevitably if you have convictions, you'll draw criticism. But if you want to get things done, you need people with convictions." The Sun newspaper first reported last week that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was set to name Abbott as joint president of the relaunched Board of Trade, "tasked with drumming up deals for Britain around the world". While there has been no official confirmation, current premier Scott Morrison told Australia's ABC last week: "Well done Boris, good hire." Abbott's 2013-2015 tenure was marked by hardline policies on illegal immigration, opposition to same-sex marriage and scepticism of man-made climate change. He was famously savaged for alleged sexism in a viral speech by his predecessor, Julia Gillard, in 2012. Emily Thornberry, spokeswoman on trade for Britain's main opposition Labour party, called Abbott's reported appointment "absolutely staggering". "On a personal level, I am disgusted that Boris Johnson thinks this offensive, leering, cantankerous, climate change-denying, Trump-worshipping misogynist is the right person to represent our country overseas," she said last week. Abbott, who is set to address a British parliamentary committee later Monday, also talked up prospects for a UK-Australia trade deal as "an absolutely unambiguous good for everyone". He noted his own government had concluded a free-trade agreement with China in 2014, but said the Covid-19 pandemic had shown the need to be "much more cautious" today about China's central role in global supply chains. In negotiating trade deals, it was important "not to be held up by things that are not all that important and not to be distracted by things that are not really issues of trade, but might for argument's sake be issues of the environment". Johnson, however, insists that Britain will not sacrifice environmental or labour standards in its zeal to clinch trade pacts once it finishes a post-Brexit transition out of the European Union at the end of the year. jit/phz/tgb
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