Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson told journalists Thursday: “We will continue to challenge China on issues that are in the U.K.’s national interest … whilst also seeking to build a pragmatic and strategic approach with China, looking for areas of cooperation where they exist.”
However, Reynolds’ comments on the sidelines of Monday’s international investment summit will add to the impression that Labour is prepared to get closer to China than may have been anticipated before the election, as the new government pushes desperately for growth to get it through a tricky set of economic circumstances.
Some industry figures view the U.K.’s reluctance to follow its allies in putting tariffs on Chinese EVs as part of a strategy to mend ties and court investment.
One Whitehall official, granted anonymity to speak on sensitive matters, claimed Chancellor Rachel Reeves was “far more like Osborne than she realizes” — a reference to the former chancellor’s unapologetic wooing of the communist republic when he was in her job.
Neil O’Brien, a Conservative MP who was among the parliamentarians sanctioned by Beijing, told POLITICO the new Labour government’s warmer stance toward China was a mistake.
He accused Starmer and Lammy of “embarking on a naive attempt to suck up to China in which our own industrial interests will get trampled as we pursue an illusory dream of a special relationship with a superpower that is hostile to us.”
David Alton, a crossbench peer also sanctioned by China, said “we are still dealing with a regime that does not share our values,” adding that it was “not encouraging” to hear the government talk of prioritizing trade before the audit had concluded.
