'Fragile' British economy needs China to save it from food banks

Indo-Pacific Minister Catherine West said security had to be 'balanced' against the need to spur economic growth

Top UK ministers, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, are racing to Beijing to drum up investment.

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer became the first UK Prime Minister to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. He is seeking deeper trade and investment between the two countries.

Starmer’s pre-election approach towards China was always an enigma. Publicly, Labour has been trying to give the impression of a security-first approach to the bilateral relationship.

Keir Starmer revives Golden Era China policy

But Starmer’s meeting with Xi and the public acknowledgement that he’d asked his Deputy Angela Rayner to re-examine China’s blocked application for a new mega-embassy at Xi’s behest, carried strong Golden Era vibes.

That sense was finally confirmed this week when the Indo-Pacific Minister Catherine West said the quiet bit out loud.

Left to right: Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK Stephen Smith and the UK’s Indo-Pacific Minister Catherine West at the Indo-Pacific Conference in London in December 2024.

West told the House of Commons that ‘unfortunately’ Britain was so exposed after Brexit, and the number of voters reliant on food banks so high, that they needed to trade more with China and that this need had to be balanced against the security risks of doing so.

‘We're in a position where our economy is quite fragile,’ Ms West said.

‘And whilst we have very clear national security concerns … we do have to balance those with being an outwardly facing and globally trading nation.

‘Unfortunately, because of our rather exposed position, post-Brexit we do have to be outwardly looking in our economy.

‘If we want our residents and our constituents to get away from food banks, we need to have more import-export with the UK, and we need to be very pragmatic on the question of having an economic relationship with the fourth biggest trading partner that we have.’