ALEX BRUMMER: Chancellor's trip to China is a botched mission
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Rachel Reeves would have been dammed whether she went to China or not. Cancelling would have looked like panic, especially as the Chancellor is choosing to travel with some of the City's finest. But the reality is, except for HSBC chairman Mark Tucker, the undisputed power brokers in the London financial markets, investment bankers Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and possibly Barclays, are missing.
If there are deals to be done, despite Beijing's suppression of Hong Kong and targeting of UK pharma champion AstraZeneca, it is the deal makers and traders who would be leading the charge. Persuading the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, to join might have seemed a great idea. But what does it say about central bank independence when he becomes part of a UK government marketing exercise? One cannot imagine Jay Powell of the Federal Reserve cosying up on Air Force One with Joe Biden or Donald Trump to ensure that a fashion group, with a dodgy supply chain and favoured by teens, chose to list its shares in New York.
The idea of both the Chancellor and governor being on the other side of the world, as the yield on UK government bonds exceed Truss-era levels and the pound subsides, is not the best optic. Wise move?: Rachel Reeves and the governor of the Bank of England are both visiting China.
There is an element of 'crisis what crisis' about the Government's response to the current market upheaval. The phrase deployed at Westminster and by deputy-governor Sarah Breeden in Edinburgh is that the surge in bond yields, with the return on the 30-year gilt now at a 26-year high, 'have been orderly'.
