The breakdown in negotiations was mostly due to Canada’s insistence on the UK loosening its food safety regulations, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Canada’s agriculture and food processing market is geared toward exporting to the US, where practices such as chemical carcass-washing and hormone-injected beef and pork are commonplace. In the EU, and the UK by virtue of its former membership of the bloc, such practices are banned.
I don't blame them for not accepting that deal.