NO EU or UK media bothered with it.
There is no FT, Guardian, Indie or BBC report on it.
They all know it was tosh.
Only some private media firm in Manhattan was taken in by it, apart from you and Dave.

Your suggested reasons for not wanting free trade with Britain do not stand up either.
We already trade profitably outside the EU more than with it, and when we can ditch the EU tariffs it will be better and cheaper still.