Readers will remember earlier this week Guido pointed out Barry Gardiner sharing a friendly with all round tosser Liu Xiaoming. Guido can reveal that another of the remarkably few politicians who waved goodbye to the genocide denying diplomat, was none other than Labour’s Liam Byrne. The self-styled ‘Shadow Mayor of the West Midlands’ sat beaming in front of his garish and lower case “liam byrne for metro mayor” background…

This isn’t the first time Byrne has shown a cosiness to China. In the mid 2010s, he authored “Turning To Face the East” – still available on Amazon – where Byrne prophesied that:

“Britain now confronts a choice. To muddle through and get by with old allies or fast forward and resolve to prosper in the Asian century.”

Guido prefers the old allies, personally.