The Chancellor is expected to make a trip to Beijing next month in hopes of building economic ties with China
The Prime Minister discussed economic ties with the Chinese President (Image: Getty)
Labour was accused of “selling the family silver” as they make moves to deepen the economic connections between the UK and China.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to have talks with China’s vice premier He Lifeng in the country’s capital, Beijing, next month.
The plan is that Rachel Reeves’ visit will restart the annual UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue, which was disrupted for years due to the relations between the countries.
But the visit has been disapproved of by Tories, including the party’s ex-security minister Tom Tugendhat, who labelled the planned trip as ‘really concerning’, claiming that Labour were “bowing down” to China.
Speaking to Times radio, he said: “If the only way in which Kier Starmer and Rachel Reeves think we can get growth is selling the family silver and selling everything we’ve got to the biggest foreign bidder. Well, frankly, we’re going to destroy this county. That’s not the way to go.’
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He also addressed the recent spying controversy over a Chinese businessman’s connections to Prince Andrew as well as the ongoing detention of British citizen Jimmy Lai, who is in Hong Kong.
Tom Tugendhat stated that labour should “be honest with the British people about the reality of what we’re seeing” and to “stand up for our interests” after he warned that China represented a ‘threat’ to the UK.
Rachael Reeves and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer have pledged that growing the country’s economy is one of their key ‘missions’. Whilst, recent figures have indicated that the UK experienced no economic growth between July and September.
Tom Tugendhat critised the labour party (Image: Getty)
The Prime Minister and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed deepening the UK’s trade links with Bejing in November at the G20 summit in Brazil.
And with the Chancellor’s impending trip to China, it could seem as though the government is making a desperate attempt to boost the economy.
The former Tory leadership contender claimed that the Prime Minister and Chancellor are being naive with the decisions they’re making of chasing economic growth through ties with Beijing.
He said: “They’re [China] an aggressive dictatorship that is trying to undermine and destroy the country that we have now. That’s not a position that we should be tolerating.”
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