Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has branded the Labour government 'astonishingly stupid' (Image: Getty)
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has branded the Labour government “astonishingly stupid” over its “reengagement” strategy with China, claiming Sir Keir Starmer and David Lammy have made Britain look “more pathetic” than ever at “the most dangerous time”.
The MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, who himself is under sanctions from China, blasted Labour as “completely naive”, after Mr Lammy travelled to Beijing in October and Sir Keir met President Xi Jinping in Rio de Janeiro earlier this month.
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Sir Iain, who in 2020 set up the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), told Express.co.uk that attempting to conduct diplomacy with China was a waste of time. “It’s a one-way street”, he explained, arguing that Beijing will dictate terms to Downing Street.
Just two days before the meeting with the UK Prime Minister, President Xi set out four policy red lines that were not up for negotiation: the Taiwan question, democracy and human rights, China's path and system, and China's right to develop.
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Sir Keir Starmer meets Xi Jinping on the side lines of the G20 Summit (Image: Getty)
David Lammy arrives in Beijing in October (Image: Getty)
“They’ll do what they think is right, which is ‘no to democracy and human rights… [and] we’ll take Taiwan back one way or the other’”, Sir Iain explained.
He added that China will give short shrift to the Government’s attempts to persuade it to help tackle climate change.
“They’ll mine what they like, [and] burn what they like”, he claimed. China is currently responsible for just under 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than any other country on the planet.
The former Work and Pensions Secretary also slammed the Government’s commitment to “deepening the partnership bilaterally on trade and investment” with China.
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Sir Iain Duncan Smith speaks at the Tory Party Conference (Image: Getty)
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During the Prime Minister’s meeting with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary on November 18, it was agreed that Chancellor Rachel Reeves should visit Beijing next year “to discuss economic and financial cooperation” with her counterpart Vice Premier He Lifeng.
Sir Iain said: “The Treasury themselves are obsessed with China. They’re naive, they’re completely naive. They think China will grow and they will grow with it. It’s not true. It’s not reciprocal.”
“China supports Russia”, he said. “China has brokered the arrangements between Russia and North Korea. China has a huge relationship with Iran, the Mullahs. And the Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) are the ones who started their proxy off on the fight with Israel. All of that is where they [China] are.
“And the idea that they will down their political tools and suddenly say ‘let’s help Britain out by giving it growth’ - they’re not interested.”
The Government is “astonishingly stupid”, Sir Iain sniped. “It could be naivety, it could be sheer panic about growth, but the idea that China’s going to give them growth is just bonkers.”
Referencing the UK Defence Secretary John Healey’s decision to slash defence spending by ￡500m and comparing it to Chinese military might and production capability, Sir Iain added that China was “busy spending money on defence to make us just look pathetic”.
China’s ship-building capacity is more than 230 times larger than the United States, according to the US Office of Naval Intelligence. It also has the largest army in the world, with three million acting service personnel in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
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“Britain never looked weaker and more pathetic than it looks today in foreign policy - it really is awful”, he said.
When approached for comment, the Foreign Office referred this website to Foreign Secretary David Lammy's response to Priti Patel in the House of Commons on 26 November: "I was very pleased to be in China discussing issues on which we disagree, on which we agree and on which we challenge China, and I will continue to do that over the coming months and years."
Express.co.uk also contacted the Treasury and No10, both of which referred us to the Foreign Secretary's comments.