Pause on nuclear plant ‘no bad thing’ for relations with Beijing

THERESA MAY’S decision to put on hold Hinkley Point nuclear plant will not harm Britain’s trade relations with China, a former chief secretary to the Treasury said yesterday.

Mrs May is reported to have ordered the review over security concerns about China’s involvement in the building of Britain’s first new nuclear power station in a generation.

Under the terms of the deal, stateowned Chinese companies will take a 33.5 per cent stake in Hinkley Point and the option to design and build a nuclear reactor in Essex.

Liam Byrne, Labour’s former chief secretary to the Treasury, said yesterday that it would do no harm for Britain to be seen standing up to Beijing. “As long as this review is handled quickly and in the right way, this is no bad thing. The relationship [between China and the UK] did need recalibrating.”

Mr Byrne, author of Turning to Face

the East, a book on Britain’s economic relations with China, said Beijing would respect Britain’s decision to make a stand on Hinkley Point, and that Mrs May’s predecessor, David Cameron, had been too quiet on issues such as human rights and cyberhacking in pursuit of Chinese investment.

Mr Cameron had only last October promised a “golden era” of trade deals during the state visit of President Xi Jinping. As well as financial support to Hinkley Point, Chinese companies were invited to bid for contracts on the HS2 high speed rail line.

Mr Byrne said: “Cameron and [George] Osborne lost a lot of credibility in Beijing because they did not dare criticise [China] on issues like human rights.”

The decision to delay Hinkley was still being digested by businesses caught up in the deal.

Jason Millett, chief operating officer for major programmes at Mace, a contractor at Hinkley Point, said: “I think a lot of people were surprised, and probably a little bit bewildered as well.”

He said he still expected the Government to give the green light. “You have to remember in the business we do, projects do have ups and downs and there are hurdles,” he said.

Kerry Brown, a former diplomat and author of CEO China: The Rise of Xi Jinping, said: “The question now is how the UK post-Brexit squares its urgent need for new trade relations with partners like China while still adhering to values and security commitments that China dislikes. We know what May and her colleagues don’t want – Chinese investment at any cost – but we don’t know what they do want.”

‘Cameron and Osborne lost a lot of credibility because they did not dare criticise China on human rights’