If the government was disappointed by the City’s mixed reaction to its new approach to the Brexit trade negotiations, one influential observer was typically blunt. At the start of his UK visit, US President Donald Trump declared that the government’s decision to follow EU rules on goods would “probably kill” the chances of a free trade agreement with the US.

Trump’s intervention pointed to a hole in the central claim of the government’s strategy for the City after Brexit. The government concedes that its proposals would lead to reduced access to EU markets for City-based firms. But it contends that this would be offset by the ability to do trade deals with other countries, particularly the US, that would open their financial services markets.