China must be blocked from critical national industries after the British Steel fiasco, MPs say.
Ministers are being warned the crisis at the company, which is owned by Chinese conglomerate Jingye, shows Beijing-linked firms cannot be trusted to run those that are crucial to Britain’s security.
The call came yesterday as the Government took control of British Steel after emergency legislation was passed by Parliament on Saturday. Nationalisation of the company is now likely.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds admitted he would not have ‘personally’ brought in a Chinese firm to run the steel sector.
He declined to comment on whether other sectors, including nuclear power, should also ban Chinese involvement but said there was now a ‘high trust bar’ for dealing with its companies.
But Tory MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘We would be mad to allow China access to our critical national industries.
‘I argued that we needed to stop them being out of our nuclear industry in the past but under Labour it has been hopeless. The trouble is that because of the mess Labour is in, they’re looking to China for growth, but they won’t get growth from China.
‘The only reason the Chinese invested in our steel industry was so that, in due course, they could turn off the furnaces so we would have to buy their steel.’
Ministers are being warned the crisis at British Steel, which is owned by Chinese conglomerate Jingye, shows Beijing-linked firms cannot be trusted to run those that are crucial to Britain’s security (file photo of Scunthorpe)
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds (left) and shadow business and trade secretary Andrew Griffith appearing on the BBC 1 current affairs programme, Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg
MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith (pictured) said: ‘We would be mad to allow China access to our critical national industries’
Conservative business spokesman Andrew Griffith said there should be ‘heightened’ concerns about how China operates.
He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: ‘It is certainly a mistake for the Government, particularly in its energy policy, to be going headlong into more dependency on the Chinese.’
Describing Labour’s response to the crisis as ‘botched nationalisation’, he added: ‘We have all got to learn from this. It’s been a chaotic week. The Government could have seen this coming earlier.’
However, he also conceded that it had been a ‘mistake… given what we’ve learned’ to sell the business to a Chinese company.
Mr Reynolds said there were ‘always direct links to the Chinese Communist Party’ for firms operating in Britain.
But added he was not accusing Beijing of being involved in the saga.
But Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader, said he was ‘certain’ the British Steel takeover by Jingye was an act of sabotage orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party.
Asked for evidence, he said: ‘You can call it intuition… I am 100 per cent certain they bought British Steel to close British Steel.’
Addressing the claim that Jingye was trying to sabotage the plant, Mr Reynolds said he was told the company wanted to retain the four steel mills but supply them with metal from China. ‘It might not be sabotage, it might be neglect,’ he said.
Conservative business spokesman Andrew Griffith (pictured) said there should be ‘heightened’ concerns about how China operates
Nigel Farage (pictured), Reform UK leader, said he was ‘certain’ the British Steel takeover by Jingye was an act of sabotage orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party
It is not the first time concerns have been raised about China’s role in the UK’s infrastructure
The Government is unlikely to include China on its registration scheme for foreign influence – a list of countries which pose the biggest national security risks to the UK, the Guardian reported.
It is likely to only target certain sectors from the country which have been accused of interference.
Concerns were raised recently after Iran and Russia were included on the list but not China.
The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (Firs) would mean anyone directed by those on the list to carry out activities in the UK would have to declare it.
It is not the first time concerns have been raised about China’s role in the UK’s infrastructure.
Huawei was banned from 5G networks in 2020.
China General Nuclear Power Group was also removed from the Sizewell B project and a Chinese tech company was ordered to sell its stake in the UK’s largest microchip factory.
