The one thing I have taken away from books such as Empire of the Clouds or Project Cancelled is that generally the post-war British aviation industry only concerned itself with supplying the RAF, FAA, BOAC and BEA, as the rate of procurement more than kept them happy. Furthermore the Government would always come to them first, so they didn't have to work too hard at it. With a few notable exceptions no major effort was put into designing aircraft that the home market didn't want, or even selling those that they did to other markets. A lot of exports were to traditional customers, those who normally bought British. Aircraft such as the Hunter and the Meteor were the exception rather than the rule.
By the time they had to work at it, in the 1960s, the Americans and the French were way ahead. There were three primary Mach 2 fighters in NATO in the 1960s, the F-104, the Mirage III and the Lightning. Two of those were also exported in big numbers. Guess which one wasn't.
A simplification for sure, but so too is the idea that our aircraft were far ahead of anybody else's -and as an enthusiast and historian I am a huge fan of early jets. How many pilots from No.77 Squadron RAAF would have gladly traded their Meteors for F-86s?