Keir Starmer hammered as ‘Beijing’s helpful fool’ in livid onslaught | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Dame Priti Patel has accused Sir Keir Starmer of turning into “Beijing’s useful idiot in Britain” in a ferocious response to the Prime Minister’s Guildhall speech on international coverage. The Shadow Foreign Secretary issued a scathing assertion inside hours of Starmer setting out a “mature” relationship with China that protects safety whereas permitting co-operation in lower-risk areas.

Dame Priti stated: “From China’s continued flouting of economic rules to transnational repression of Hong Kongers in Britain, Starmer’s ‘reset’ with Beijing is a naive one-way street which puts Britain at risk while Beijing gets everything it wants.” She added: “Coming just days after the latest Chinese plot to interfere in our democracy was exposed, his love letter to the Chinese Communist Party is a desperate ploy to generate economic growth following his Budget of lies and is completely ill-judged.

“While China poses a clear threat to Britain, China continues to back Iran and Russia, and plots to undermine our institutions. Keir Starmer has become Beijing’s useful idiot in Britain.”

In his speech on Monday night, Sir Keir rejected each David Cameron’s “golden era” of shut engagement and the later Conservative “ice age” of confrontation, insisting safety remained “non-negotiable” in areas comparable to defence, AI and demanding nationwide infrastructure.

He argued that refusing to have interaction with the world’s second-largest financial system can be “a dereliction of duty” and stated British companies wanted “confidence, clarity and support” to compete the place dangers have been low.

The Prime Minister additionally described his general strategy as “the biggest shift in British foreign policy since Brexit”, insisting internationalism was the one patriotic response to a “more dangerous and unstable” world.

Patel’s assault follows current studies of alleged Chinese interference in British politics and comes because the Government faces continued criticism over its financial file.

Downing Street has not but issued a proper response to the “useful idiot” accusation, however Labour sources have beforehand accused Conservative critics of hypocrisy, pointing to Chinese funding in Hinkley Point C and different tasks agreed beneath David Cameron and George Osborne.

The conflict has reignited the political battle over who could be hardest on China, a difficulty on which opinion polls persistently present the Conservatives main Labour.