Stanley: I don’t t ake money from China
BORIS Johnson’s father Stanley last night hit back at questions by Nigel Farage over his links to China.
In his interview, Mr Farage suggests that the Prime Minister was pro-Beijing because of the attitude of his Sinophile brothers, Max and Jo, and Stanley, of whom he said: ‘There is the ever more mysterious role of Stanley, who appears to have been acting as an interlocutor between the previous Chinese ambassador and No 10, running messages back and forth... would it be unfair to ask whether he financially benefits out of these pronouncements he’s making?’
But last night Stanley Johnson hit back, branding Mr Farage’s claims ‘ totally untrue’ and insisting his one meeting with the Chinese ambassador last year was about climate change and biodiversity. He said: ‘I certainly wasn’t speaking officially on behalf of the UK Government and never suggested I was doing so.
‘And it is totally untrue to suggest as Nigel Farage does that financial or other benefits played a part.’ He said that ‘continued close cooperation between China and the UK’ was ‘absolutely essential’. Jo Johnson responded by pointing out that he had recently raised the need to monitor the ‘risks’ of British universities’ ‘extensive’ links with Chinese institutions. Max Johnson declined to comment. Stanley Johnson first visited China in 1975 as part of an EU delegation, and had close links with Liu Xiaoming, the outgoing Chinese ambassador to the UK.
Last week, the 80-year-old Mr Johnson said it was ‘absolutely vital’ that Britain continued to ‘work very closely’ with the Chinese government, ‘even more’ post-Brexit.
He said: ‘China is not a bete noire. It’s the key to so many things. In political terms, it’s absolutely vital we work very closely with China.
‘He [the Prime Minister] is right not to write off China at this point – on the contrary, I think he’s right to move to discussions with China, important discussions. It is inevitable, even more inevitable now that we have left the EU.’