Interior Minister Yvette Cooper was forced to protect Keir Starmer’s closeness to Chinese President Xi Jinping, even as the weekend espionage row reiterated the risk to Beijing’s security.
Cooper insisted that the administration would take “strong” action against any challenge to national security by China, but defended the desire to forge close economic ties.
Asked what her message is to the Chinese state following the diplomatic furore, Ms Cooper told the BBC: “We will continue to take a very strong approach to our national security, that includes to any challenge to our national security including to our economic security from China, from other countries around the world, that will always be the approach that we will take.
“Of course, with China we also want to make sure that this economic interaction and cooperation also exists. It is a complex agreement.
The row risks raising questions about the Prime Minister’s judgement, coming just one month after Sir Keir Starmer became the first leader to meet with President Xi Jinping since 2018, in a significant thawing of Cino-British relations.
READ MORE: Starmer warned he was making a ‘tragic mistake’ by kowtowing to China
Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel warned the government that “there is no doubt that China poses a risk to our country’s national security. “
“As this case of the spy in the centre of Whitehall has shown, there is really extensive evidence that China is racing to undermine our values and the very values that underpin our country,” he said.
“It is in the public interest to know all the facts of the spies, their motivations and their political astuteness.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to China’s hostile incursions that have persisted for more than a decade and continue to break what is accepted between our two countries. “
China hawk and former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told the Express that Sir Keir’s meeting with President Xi raised considerations about the minister’s judgement.
He said it also “shows how weak China is,” adding: “His reinvention of the failed China policies of Osborne’s ‘golden age’ is called Project Kow Tow. ” »
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Sir Iain said China views Britain as the “weak point” in the five eyes security organization made up of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Rachel Reeves is set to fly to Beijing in January to resume the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue after a six-year hiatus, just days before Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Nigel Farage has now threatened to reveal the so-called “H6” in the House of Commons this week, a parliamentary privilege to ensure there is no “establishment cover-up”.
Farage argued, “The guy deserves to be named immediately; otherwise, it all looks like a cover-up by the establishment.
“If it’s not resolved in the courts, he should be named in the Commons. It’s clearly in the national interest.”
While MPs have a legal right to use parliamentary privilege to avoid legal injunctions or repercussions, the Speaker has previously warned against its use, particularly on national security matters.
In September last year, Sir Lindsay Hoyle warned sternly against the idea of naming a man at the center of the Chinese espionage scandal.
He argued that the individual’s call could harm long-term prosecutions.
He refused to repeat the same warning when approached via the Express.
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