Keir Starmer defends UK engagement with China amid Prince Andrew revelations | Foreign policy

Keir Starmer has defended his government's greater openness towards Beijing following revelations about an alleged Chinese spy who formed a close relationship with Prince Andrew, saying it was important to engage.

Asked for the first time about the matter, while some MPs called for a change in his approach on China, the Prime Minister refused to comment directly on Andrew or the royal family, but said he was satisfied with what he called progress in relations with Beijing.

As part of the partial reset of relations with Beijing, Starmer met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Rio, the first meeting between British and Chinese leaders in six years. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is expected to visit Beijing soon.

Of course we are concerned about the challenge posed by China, Starmer said at a brief news conference in Bergen alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stre, during a visit focused on defense cooperation and clean energy.

I had a meeting with the [Chinese] president just a few weeks ago. Our approach is one of engagement, of cooperating where we need to cooperate, particularly on issues like climate change, of challenging where we need to and where we should, particularly on issues like human rights, and to be competitive in trade.

So this is the strategic approach that we have set out as a UK Government. I'm not going to comment on Buckingham Palace or the royal side, because, by convention, the government never does.

Starmer continued: It is important to engage. Of course, we need to challenge where we need to, but it's better to engage to challenge than to stay on the sidelines, so to speak, because it's important to cooperate where we can on issues like climate change , which require this cooperation. So I'm very pleased with the commitment and the progress we've made.

According to court documents, the alleged spy, who under a British court order can only be referred to publicly as H6, was so close to the prince that he was authorized to act on his behalf in as part of an international financial initiative with potential partners and investors in China. .

In the judgment handed down this month, which upheld the businessman's exclusion from the UK, the judge found that he had gained a significant degree, one might say, an unusual degree, of confidence from a high-ranking member of the royal family who was willing to engage in business activities. with him.

Ministers are under pressure to set a timetable for relaunching the Foreign Influence Registration System (FIRS), which had been delayed until next year, and to place China in the enhanced threat category.

Asked about the progress of the project, Starmer simply replied: “We have been working on this since day one in government, and an update will be available soon.

Conservative MPs, more reluctant about links with China, have warned that the affair involving Andrew is certainly only a small part of wider efforts by Beijing to forge links with influential people in the UK in using what is called its United Front Work Department.

Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader who is seeking an urgent question in the House of Commons on Monday to question ministers on the issue, said the current affair was just the tip of the iceberg of Beijing's attempts to infiltrate the United Kingdom.

The fact is there are many others like him in the UK, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. There are many others doing the job that he does, and the fact that he left the UK tells you that he realized at some point that he was going to get caught.

The reality is that there are many more who are involved in exactly this type of espionage that is taking place now. The reality for us is very simple. China poses a very clear threat.

Tom Tugendhat, another Conservative MP who was previously security minister, told BBC Ones Breakfast: I am absolutely certain that there are members of the United Front Work Department who are active at the moment trying to influencing journalism, academia, politics and everything in between. . This really is the tip of the iceberg.

And so the story, I can understand why it's about Prince Andrew but not really about Prince Andrew. This is about how the Chinese Communist Party seeks to exert its influence here in the UK.

If Smith's question is granted by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, there is speculation that other MPs, potentially from Reform UK, could name the alleged spy.