A popular Tory politician has suggested that serious security fears relating to Beijing should not prompt a breaking-off of relations because Britain needs China to reach carbon ‘net zero.’
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch is not described as the “darling of the right” for no reason; for many genuine conservatives who reluctantly stick with the Tories, she is a—if not the—symbol of hope for the future of the party. Yet the secretary is as signed up to some of its most silly policy programmes as the rest.
After reports emerged of an alleged Chinese spy working closely with senior Tories who are “privy to classified or highly sensitive information,” Mrs. Badenoch, alongside other party leaders, made it their duty to highlight the positives of being linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On the shift to electric vehicles, she said:
At the moment, China is leading on this technology, so we wouldn’t be able to get to where we want to get to on net zero by completely stopping or banning Chinese products. You can’t exclude Chinese-made products from the battery ecosystem.
She made no mention of the fact that while Britain travels down the costly road to net zero, of which the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and the turn to electric is a part, China is ramping up its mining and burning of coal.
Neither did the business secretary address concerns that its grip on British transportation could enable Beijing to paralyse motorists and spy on citizens. A Chinese tracking device has already reportedly been found sealed in a UK government car.
Some Tory MPs, including former leader of the party Sir Iain Duncan Smith, cited in our recent report on alleged spying, and former cabinet minister Sir John Redwood, who spoke to The European Conservative earlier this year on the banning of petrol cars, have urged the government to change course. But their warnings are not being heeded.
In the face of a possible Beijing spy in the ancient halls of British power, Ms. Badenoch’s pro-China sentiments were dutifully echoed by Downing Street, which said the UK must be “in the room” with the CCP; as well as by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who insisted that “diplomacy is about talking to everyone, and Britain will always understand that.”
