Labour’s review of UK-China relations on hold until after chancellor visits Beijing
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Exclusive: Despite calls for more scrutiny in light of Prince Andrew spy allegations, Starmer’s instinct is not to do anything to hamper growth. A review of UK-China relations has been delayed until after the chancellor makes her first trip to Beijing next month, the Guardian has learned, amid a row over an alleged spy who befriended Prince Andrew.
Rachel Reeves will travel to China in early January as part of a charm offensive by the Labour government. The trip will be focused on financial services, and Tulip Siddiq, the City minister, is expected to travel with the chancellor. This will raise concerns among China hawks that ministers are set to reject pressure to subject business dealings with China to higher scrutiny.
Such pressure intensified after the exclusion of Yang Tengbo, a businessman who ran the Duke of York’s Pitch@Palace project in China and is said by security officials to be associated with an arm of the Chinese state. On Monday, Yang asked a court to lift an anonymity order so he could challenge “ill-founded” claims against him and he insisted he was not a spy.
As part of a Labour manifesto commitment, the government is carrying out a cross-Whitehall audit of UK relations with China, which it had originally planned to publish at the same time as Reeves’s trip. However, the audit has now been pushed back to the spring, a Foreign Office source confirmed. Only part of its findings will be published.
