Emma Reynolds is replacing Tulip Siddiq as City minister with the anti-corruption brief. Reynolds, former Treasurer of the APPG for China, has some eyebrow-raising form on Jinping’s regime. Bloomberg reported just last month that, as managing director of public affairs at banking trade group TheCityUK, Reynolds had recently taken part in a campaign to lobby ministers to keep China off the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme’s “enhanced tier.” That would have increased transparency obligations for dealings with China…
At the time Labour said Reynolds “was not involved in the government’s China policy.” Labour has so far failed to introduce the Tory-initiated scheme and Reynolds is elevated to City minister, a relevant brief. Some fingers are also pointed at her ‘multiple’ meetings with a Russian diplomat way back in 2012. She said at the time she wasn’t against setting up a “Labour Friends of Russia” group. Judging by the good that Labour Friends of Bangladesh did for the last City minister, now might not be the time…
UPDATE: Downing Street refuses to say whether the new City minister will recuse herself from any decisions on China.
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”