Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
FT editor Roula Khalaf selects her favorite stories in this weekly newspaper.
Sir Keir Starmer wrapped up a four-day visit to China on Saturday, with Donald Trump attacking him for his “dangerous” contacts with Beijing, being branded “Sir Cowtow” in the right-wing press and opponents accusing him of doing nothing to show for himself.
Amid tight security and surrounded by aides carrying burner phones, Starmer ended the visit even after being asked whether he had been advised to wear clothes under a quilt to avoid spying cameras in his room. “No, I wasn’t, and I didn’t either,” he said.
Facing the threat of a Labor rebellion at home, did the Prime Minister – whom critics have dubbed the “Keir never here” – ever consider whether the trip was worth it? Starmer was adamant: improving relations with China was entirely in the national interest.
“By engaging with China we can secure growth for British businesses, support good jobs at home and protect our national security,” he said, arguing that ending the diplomatic “ice age” with Beijing would have a direct impact on voters’ lives.
The initial results of this improved relationship were relatively modest. Downing Street claimed that the first visit by a Prime Minister to China in eight years had led to £2.2 billion in export deals and almost £2.3 billion in “market access wins” including in agriculture, sports and life sciences.
Whiskey duty will be cut from 10 per cent to 5 per cent on Monday and Downing Street said it was “completely confident” President Xi Jinping would strike a deal to introduce visa-free travel for British citizens visiting China. There will be what one British official called “negotiations about negotiations” on the liberalization of services.
To put these purported gains into perspective, Starmer’s government claimed it had secured £150 billion of US investment at the time of Trump’s state visit last September, even though the “technological prosperity agreement” signed by the two leaders had not yet come into force.
But Starmer insists the “warm and constructive” relationship he forged with Xi on Thursday will yield long-term benefits. His colleagues claim deals worth “tens of billions” of pounds will materialize over the next decade, from energy to financial services and the arts.
A British official said the Starmer-Xi meeting was “a strong signal that it is OK to do business with Britons. It reinforces the message of engagement”. Ahead of Starmer’s election in July 2024, relations with Beijing had cooled deeply under successive Conservative governments.
Even some of Starmer’s critics within the Labor Party believe the prime minister is deftly handling tricky geopolitical relationships with Trump’s US, post-Brexit Europe and Xi Jinping – and trying to extract the most trade benefits from them all.
A senior Labor MP said Starmer was very grateful for the advice of his experienced national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, who joined Xi for a “tete-a-tete” with the British prime minister on Thursday.
“He is surrounded by idiots when it comes to domestic policy,” the MP said. “They really need some political advice at the level of diplomatic advice that Powell has.”
On Friday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch used Starmer’s visit to highlight their differing approaches to economic policy, and accused the government of being “dependent” on goods from China.
“Keir Starmer went to China desperate for support because his entire economic policy is dependent on Chinese imports: wind turbines, solar panels and car batteries,” he wrote on X.
Reform UK MP Robert Jenrick, who recently defected from the Conservative Party, accused Starmer of paying “tribute to himself” to Beijing for little economic benefit.
“He has made concessions in the hope of better relations that undermine our security – and he has still left Beijing empty-handed,” Jenrick said.
Critics of Britain’s approach towards China also highlighted what they saw as the Chinese leadership’s disregard for Starmer during the visit.
Luke D Pulford, head of the hard-line inter-parliamentary coalition on China, said China’s decision to let Starmer tour the Forbidden City with only a tour guide, while other tourists were still wandering around, was an apparent slight.
When US President Donald Trump visited the Forbidden City in 2017, President Xi gave him a personal tour. “The Chinese put an enormous amount of effort into signaling importance through protocol,” Dee Pulford said on X.
But Starmer’s experience was no different from that of many other foreign leaders who have been given more modest tours of the compound.
Overall, China was receptive to his visit, as it takes advantage of the vulnerabilities created by Trump’s attacks on NATO and its Western trading partners.
Starmer’s visit follows visits since November to middle powers traditionally aligned with the US, including the French, Spanish, South Korean, Canadian, Finnish and Irish leaders or heads of state. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will arrive in the coming weeks.
Starmer rejected Trump’s criticism of his “dangerous” negotiations with China on trade, noting that the US president himself will be in Beijing in April.
It’s an intriguing question whether any of this high-level diplomacy will do Starmer much good at home in the near future. Some of his MPs want him to spend more time in Number 10 to get a grip on his flailing administration. “It’s not working,” was one minister’s disappointing assessment.
