Chris Bryant MP has defended Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to China as he claimed the Prime Minister has “played a blinder” on the world stage.
Speaking to GB News, the Business and Trade Minister also defended the approval of China’s new mega embassy in London, claiming he is “content” with the plans.
Following his visit to Beijing, Sir Keir has agreed with Xi Jingping, the Chinese President, UK citizens will be able to travel visa-free to China for trips under 30 days.
The world leaders also discussed easing tariff charges on scotch whisky exports and a crackdown on Chinese-made small boat engines, in a bid to tackle Britain’s migrant crisis.
Discussing the trip on GB News, Mr Bryant said: “A British Prime Minister hasn’t visited China since 2018, and we’ve had a completely inconsistent relationship with China for years under the Tories.
“At one point they were in the golden age of our relations with China, the next minute was the ice age with China, and half the time it felt like it was the Bronze Age with China.
“And so what we need to do is we need to have a consistent relationship with China, which means that we enter into it with our eyes wide open, being absolutely clear about the issues where we disagree with China and we need to challenge them, but also making sure that there are fourth largest export market making sure that you know we that pays dividends for British people.”
He added: “I know there are some people who say we shouldn’t have anything to do with China, I think that is naive and frankly childish, because I defy anybody on your program to spend an hour of their day having nothing to do with China, your mobile phones, the makeup brushes that you used earlier this morning, the clothes you wear, all of these things bring us into relationship with China.”
Labour minister Chris Bryant said Sir Keir Starmer has ‘played a blinder’ in China
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GB NEWS
Pushing back on Mr Bryant’s argument, host Nana Akua responded: “I don’t think anyone wants us not to have a relationship with China, we just want to be a very cautious relationship with China because we know they’re very good at spying, and we are actually beholding to them in many ways.”
Celebrating Sir Keir’s whisky deal with China, Mr Bryant highlighted the “significance” of the Chinese whisky market: “It’s a big deal, I think it’s a good deal. It’s part of several other elements that we’ve secured within our discussions with China. It’s a good deal for Scotch whisky.
“It’s on top of the deal that we did with India, where we’ve cut the tariffs from 150 per cent down to 75 per cent, and then going down to 40 per cent, that’s going to be worth billions of pounds for Scotch whisky in India over the next few years. China is not the biggest whisky market in the world, it’s round about 10th for the UK, but it’s a significant possible future market for us and we want to build on that.”
Hailing the PM for his performance in China, Mr Bryant said: “What Keir Starmer has done I think really shows the strength of the British position at the moment. Over the last few weeks we’ve shown that we plough our own course, whether it was on Greenland or on relations with the EU or the United States of America, or here in relation to China.
Sir Keir Starmer and Xi Jinping have discussed easing tariff charges on scotch whisky exports and visas
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PA“We plough our own course and I think Keir Starmer has played a blinder. One of my criticisms over the years is that we’ve flip flopped endlessly between trying to please China and trying to criticise China, and I think we need a coherent position.”
Quizzed by host Eamonn Holmes on the new Chinese super embassy in the capital, Mr Bryant was pressed on whether the success of the trip is down to the pre-approval of the embassy.
Mr Bryant responded: “China’s had an embassy in the UK since I think 1877 up until now, and the site was agreed by the Conservative Government in 2018, and up until now, they’ve had seven different sites around London.
“MI5 and MI6 have looked very closely at all the security related issues in this. They say they are content, frankly, on a security basis, and if MI5 and MI6 are content, then I’m content.”
Chris Bryant said he is ‘content’ with the new Chinese embassy
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GB NEWS
He revealed: “There’s also another decision. Incidentally, I don’t know whether you’ve ever visited the British Embassy in Beijing, but we need to make sure that that is upgraded because that is in a terrible state of disrepair.
“And that is one of the things that has been part of the discussions that we’ve been having.”
Asked whether Sir Keir got the upgrade as part of his deal discussions, Mr Bryant admitted: “I don’t know the answer to that question.
“I think so, I think we have, but I’m probably going beyond what I know.”