The UK government is at loggerheads with the European Union over the Northern Ireland protocol, but today it may have averted a fresh post-Brexit clash in proposed legislation on data protection.

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has become something of a gold standard since its introduction four years ago, but the UK has been looking to diverge from it since leaving Europe, saying it wants to cut red tape and make Britain a more attractive place for companies and emerging technologies.

But a radical divergence from GDPR could prompt the EU to withdraw the adequacy ruling that allows data exchange with the UK. Services dominate the British economy and data-driven trade generated nearly three quarters of total service exports and an estimated ￡234bn for the economy in 2019.