International Trade Secretary Liz Truss has held talks with her Australian counterpart as the two global powerhouses edge closer to a lucrative post-Brexit free trade deal. Ministers met on Thursday to iron out key differences, with Environment Secretary George Eustice and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove fiercely opposed to a zero tariff, zero quotas agreement that is being demanded by Australia. Remainers have strongly warned such a deal would undermine UK farmers undercut by a wave of meat imports from Australia that could flood the market.

Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Brexiteer and former MEP Daniel Hannan said: “Something became painfully clear this week. The opposition to Britain’s global trade deals is not driven by concern for hill farmers, or fears for the Union, or any economic calculations whatever.

“It is driven, rather, by Europhile nostalgia; by the desire, perhaps unconscious, for Brexit to fail so that its opponents might be proved right after all.

“Most Remainers accepted the referendum result with good grace. But a handful cannot let go and, like Jacobites, cling to what they know to be a lost cause because it has become part of their identity.

“The paradox is that, in doing so, they have lost touch with the principles that made them support the EU in the first place.

Now Express.co.uk readers have thrown their support behind the comments from Mr Hannan and have launched their own furious attack against Remainers.

Reacting to our original story, one person wrote: “Remainers are an absolute embarrassment to the UK and themselves.”

A second Express.co.uk reader said: “Just why would anyone wish to be part of the failed EU?

“I was not a leaver but I am now seeing the immature and vitriolic attitude of EU politicians.

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The former MEP wrote: “Official analysis shows that, while every part of the UK will benefit from the deal, Scotland (along with London) will gain the most.

“Australian tariffs on whisky will be removed, and Edinburgh’s financial services will gain access to new markets.”

During Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons last Wednesday, Mr Blackford lashed out at Boris Johnson over the trade negotiations with Australia.

He raged: “The Government led the betrayal of Scottish fishing and now the Tories are planning to throw our farmers and crofters under the Brexit bus.”

“This deal would be the final nail in the coffin for many Scottish crofters and farmers, it will end a way of life that has endured for generations Prime Minister. I know that many of the Prime Minister’s Tory colleagues privately agree with me and want him to pull back from this deal.

“So will the Prime Minister finally listen, think again and ditch a deal that will send our farmers down under?”

The Prime Minister hit back: “First of all he’s totally wrong about what he says about the fisheries because in fact there are massive opportunities for fisheries for the whole of the UK as we take back control of our territorial waters.”

“He is grossly underestimating the ability of the people of this country, the agricultural communities of this country, the farming industry to make the most of free trade. This is a country that grew successful and prosperous on free trade on exporting around the world.

“Our food exports are second to none, he should be proud of that, we should be celebrating that and all he does is call for us to pull up the drawbridge and go back into the EU to be run by Brussels, that’s his manifesto and I think the people of this country have decisively rejected it.”