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Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer asked Rishi Sunak on Wednesday to conduct a “comprehensive review of UK-China relations” following the arrest of a British parliamentary researcher accused of spying for Beijing.
Starmer said the prime minister’s approach to China was “inconsistent” with the tougher stance urged by parliament’s intelligence and security committee in a scathing report in July.
The government is expected to give a formal response on Thursday to the committee’s report, which found the UK’s approach to China’s “increasingly sophisticated” espionage operations was “wholly inadequate”.
Sunak sought to describe the committee’s findings as outdated and related to the “investigation period of 2019 and 2020”, as he pointed to legislation and other measures introduced by the government since then to increase scrutiny of potential Chinese espionage and interference. Protect.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Starmer accused Sunak of “running a desperate race” and failing to “listen to the warnings from the British security services about China”.
Starmer also demanded to know whether British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly raised Westminster’s alleged Chinese spies with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi when he visited Beijing last month to repair relations between the two countries. The problem.
Sunak insisted Cleverly had spoken to his Chinese hosts about the general issue of Beijing’s interference in the UK, but refused to say whether he had raised a case of alleged espionage.
Starmer raised the issue after the Financial Times revealed that Sunak and Cleverley were contacted shortly after the Metropolitan Police arrested a British parliamentary researcher in March on suspicion of spying for Beijing. notice, but continues to strengthen the UK’s engagement with China.
Cleverly’s trip is the first visit to Beijing by a senior British government official in five years.
The former parliamentary researcher denied the espionage charges on Monday.
Conservative lawmakers who are hawkish on China expressed anger at the government’s actions.
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said he suspected Cleverley cited “embarrassment” as a reason for refusing to mention the alleged spy to the king at Westminster.
Duncan Smith urged ministers to accept the conclusions of the Intelligence and Security Committee’s July report and “strengthen our policy towards China and listen to the views of the security services on the threat posed”.
At the same time, it was reported that Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the House of Commons defense committee, has resigned from the position.
Ellwood resigned before being ousted by other members of the committee, according to people familiar with the matter.
He was criticized after posting a video in July claiming that security in Afghanistan had “improved greatly” and “corruption has decreased” after the Taliban took power in 2021.
Although Ellwood later apologized, councilors made it clear the chairman did not have their support and he chose to resign before facing a vote of no confidence.
Labor insiders believe Sarah Atherton, a Conservative member of the committee, is the frontrunner to succeed Ellwood, saying she is likely to win the support of opposition MPs.
The Financial Times contacted Ellwood for comment.
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