The British minister charged with boosting international trade post-Brexit has slammed the country's businesses as being too "fat and lazy" to capitalize on the opportunity, the Times newspaper reported Saturday.

Fox will play a key role in establishing Britain's role on the world stage as it leaves the European Union, but his comments are likely to cause outrage among the business community that he represents.

Fox had already told Johnson that the Foreign Office should not interfere with trade issues, and on Thursday criticized the "Foreign Office view of the world" that focussed on diplomacy rather than business.

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