London Only one in 40 British diplomats is fluent in the language of the country to which they have been posted, it was claimed Wednesday.
Figures show that just 48 of Britain's 1,900 overseas diplomats receive a bonus on their salary because they have an "extensive" grasp of the language used where they are based.
Most of the others receive no extra money, indicating they cannot manage even day-to-day exchanges.
Tory MP Stephen Barclay, who sits on the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said he was afraid that the UK could lose out on lucrative trade deals as a result of diplomats' language failings.
In India, for example, there is just one UK diplomat who can speak Hindi. The Delhi government has named France the preferred bidder over Britain to supply 126 fighter jets in a £7 billion (Dh40.81 billion) deal.
In North Korea, Britain has five diplomats, for whom a key role is to persuade the regime to drop its nuclear programme. But just one can speak Korean, and then only at beginners' level. Barclay blamed the failings in part on the decision by Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor to close the Foreign Office's language school to save £1 million a year.
He said: "A lack of language skills could have cost Britain many times the savings Labour tried to make."
