Johnson's much-trumpeted FTAs “barely scratch the surface of the UK’s challenge to make up the GDP lost by leaving the EU”.

As Britain's political impasse sharpens ahead of its March 29 withdrawal date from the European Union, an idea has gained traction among some Brexiteers -- that Britain should become a low tax, low regulation and low public spending paradise in the same mold of the tiny Southeast Asian city state of Singapore.

When asked if it was possible for a "Singapore on the Thames", Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he did not think there will be a "London by the Merlion".

The city state has a strange appeal to some Tories yet even its prime minister doubts its approach would work in Britain.

Regime change at No.10 could revive one vision of the British economy. But it remains totally unrealistic.