TORY ministers don’t want to publish the secret “no deal” analysis about the impact of Brexit on Scotland as it might “diminish” the UK’s negotiating hand.

When pushed on reports that government-commissioned analysis showed Scotland and the north of England would be damaged the most in the event of a no-deal outcome, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said it wouldn’t be published.

In an appearance on ITV’s Peston on Sunday show, he said: “Why would we publish data in a negotiation that might actually diminish our negotiating hand?”

Fox, who was a leading Brexiteer, also dismissed claims that the next phase of Brexit negotiations, on a trade deal, would be complicated. He said it would only be difficult if Brussels tried to “punish Britain for having the audacity”.

Fox insisted that no deal, and crashing out of the EU and trading on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms, was “not exactly a nightmare scenario”.

But he stressed he would “prefer to have a deal because it would give greater certainty and almost certainly greater openness”, and said reaching agreement did not need to be complicated if there was political will.

“I don’t think they’re [the negotiations] difficult in terms of the trade law or the trade negotiations themselves,” he said. “The difficulty is the politics. In other words, how much does the European Commission and the European elite want to punish Britain for having the audacity to use our legal rights to leave the European Union?

“That’s the thing. And what will the price be for the prosperity of European citizens of that decision?

“I would hope that economic sense would dictate that we put the prosperity agenda of the whole of the European continent in a global context at the top of that agenda – not ever closer union, in other words the drive by the Commission towards their political objective, which has a near-theological level.”

The minister also seemed to suggest Britain would never get a better trade deal with Europe than the one it has just now as part of the EU.

“We want us to maintain that closeness because the global economy has not been doing tremendously well and trade’s not been doing tremendously well globally, so we can’t really afford to put any impediments to trade and investment in Europe that don’t exist today.”

The SNP’s Stephen Gethins said: “Even the hardline Brexiteer Liam Fox has conceded that it is not possible to reach a deal with the EU that betters the one we already enjoy.

“Moreover, the International Trade Secretary’s refusal to publish the economic assessment of a ‘no deal’ scenario shows just how damning that assessment is in reality.

“If the assessment was positive the Tories would be trumpeting it from the rooftops of Westminster. The fact is, a no-deal scenario will do untold damage to our economy and threaten thousands of jobs – that’s why the Tories are withholding this information from the public.

“To repeat what Poland’s former foreign minister said this week – the UK has a lot more to lose than the EU in these negotiations given that Britain is 15 per cent of the EU’s trade and the EU is 47 per cent of Britain’s trade.

“It’s time the Tories came back to reality and halted their reckless approach to negotiations, which risks enormous damage to our economy. Theresa May must start putting the interests of the country ahead of her party’s squabbles and commit to staying in the single market.”

Labour’s Emily Thornberry said it would not be Brussels punishments that messed up Brexit negotiations but Tory infighting, as the Prime Minister no longer had “strength or the authority to control” her MPs.