Sunak’s foreign policy reset overshadowed by espionage

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Good morning. There’s a story on everyone’s lips in Westminster today: a British parliamentary researcher has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing. Any positive headlines Sunak had hoped to see at the G20 summit were dashed. But more importantly, it reveals a big problem about the wider aims of British foreign policy. More below.

Blinded by news reports

“Eclipsed” is one of those sly words we political reporters like to use, meaning “the story is more interesting or interesting than the one the government of the day wanted us to write.” In this case, “The Sunday Times report that a British parliamentary researcher has been arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing is far more interesting than Rishi Sunak’s experience at the G20”. But this time the word does fit, as the spy story has really cast a shadow on Sunak’s agenda and undermined it.

Foreign policy is one area where Sunak’s government does represent a shift in approach from Boris Johnson’s government. Closer to home, he abandoned his long-running battle with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol and brought Britain back to the Horizon Plan. Further afield, he also blunted anti-Chinese tendencies in Britain. His foreign secretary, James Cleverly, became the first British foreign secretary to visit China since Jeremy Hunt in 2018.

The precise political consequences of this story will depend on the details that ultimately emerge in the public eye and what happens next. But it has strengthened the anti-China wing of the Conservative Party and undermined Sunak’s attempts to reset Britain’s China policy.

But more importantly, it highlights a change in global politics since Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, and one that is not good for Britain. Just eight months before the Brexit referendum, David Cameron posed for photos and drank a pint with Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping met the Queen and Britain announced a new strategic partnership, albeit all within the Conservative Party The ministry has faced some criticism across Westminster and they have been marginalized. China skepticism is now the dominant school of thought in the Conservative Party and in many ways the dominant school of thought in Westminster.

In June 2016, Britain’s departure from the European Union did not necessarily mean insulating itself from an increasingly tough set of trade barriers, as the ways in which British diplomats faced them were severely restricted. 2023 is indeed the year. As Martin Sandbu puts it in a smart column today, as much as this shift in public opinion on the Remain/Brexit issue remains “unfinished business” in the EU-UK relationship “One of the reasons.

Now try this

I had a frustrating weekend, from 9pm on Friday to 5pm on Sunday, with a cold that just knocked me out.Logically it’s a mercy, but I’m really looking forward to seeing paragraph.

Now I’m at a stage where I feel like I can work, but not well enough to go into the office without feeling antisocial. (I’m not a home worker to begin with.)

Part of my weekend plan is to read FTWeekend. I particularly enjoyed Ludovic Hunter-Tilney’s controversial memory of Amy Winehouse and Simon Willis’s The London Plane Trees threats, and Anna Nicolaou’s article on the reshaping of the music industry in the age of streaming.

Speaking of streaming: let me know what to watch while I recover from sneezing and sniffling!

Today’s headlines

• trade relations | Rishi Sunak and Narendra Modi gave further impetus to UK-India trade talks as they met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi on Saturday, instructing ministers and Officials worked “step by step” to reach an agreement.

• upgrade | A key issue facing many towns in the north of England has been the decline of its manufacturing base for many years. In Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, the dilemma is different. BAE Systems, the port town’s largest employer, has a full order book for the next 30 years.

• No pension commitment | Rishi Sunak has refused to commit to a so-called triple lock in pensions in the next Conservative election manifesto, potentially sparking a backlash from Tory MPs.

• boom to bust | Birmingham, the UK’s second largest city, is one of the UK’s fastest-recovering cities from the epidemic, attracting record levels of foreign investment. But this prosperity contrasts with the severe financial difficulties faced by Labour-run local authorities.