All is not well over in the accounts department, on the other side of the water cooler. Embattled Chancellor Rachel Reeves has lined up a huge trip to China this weekend coming as the latest episode in Labour’s odd (read: suspicious) series of pro-China moves. Lammy visited Beijing in October, Starmer met Xi face to face at the G20, saying nothing as a group of Chinese government goons kicked out the UK’s media pack from the room…
Reeves is bringing along the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, and FCA chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, and a phalanx of senior bankers including HSBC’s chair, Mark Tucker. But is it a trade mission? Not really – Reeves is slated to meet China’s vice-premier, He Lifeng, in Beijing before flying to Shanghai. The political mood music is bleak, just a few weeks ago the row over ‘H6’ Yang Tengbo erupted…
But more pressing problems are being felt at home. UK government bonds absolutely tanked yesterday, with 30 year yields the highest since 1998 and 10 year the highest since 2008. The pound is at its weakest for 13 months. Can Reeves really abandon ship with the City beginning to panic the ‘Truss’ alarm is going off in the control room?
And thats not to mention the string of human rights criticisms raised in Parliament this week. Including some very punchy arrest warrants issued in Hong Kong for pro-democracy activists living in the UK – a classic Chinese bait and switch trap which Reeves has tumbled into…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”