Tories urged to reject Bill allowing trade deals with countries guilty of genocide

LABOUR IS appealing to Tory MPs to defy the whips and back the latest parliamentary move to prevent Ministers signing trade deals with countries implicated in genocide.

In the House of Commons today, the Government will seek to overturn a House of Lords amendment to the Trade Bill limiting its ability to strike agreements with nations involved in the most serious human rights abuse.

It comes after a rebellion last months by 31 Tory MPs slashed the Government’s majority of 80 to just 15 amid accusations of “dirty tricks” by Ministers to scupper an earlier amendment by the upper chamber to give the courts a role in deciding whether trade deals can go ahead.

The latest change tabled by the human rights campaigner Lord Alton of Liverpool would establish a parliamentary panel of judicial experts which could determine whether any proposed signatory to a trade agreement with the UK had committed genocide. Ministers opposed the move arguing it would “blur the distinction between courts and Parliament” while the response to concerns over genocide in relation to trade policy was ultimately a “political question”.

However, they face growing unrest on the Tory benches among MPs concerned about China’s treatment of its Uighur minority in Xinjiang province.

When the Government published its Integrated Review of foreign and defence policy on Tuesday, senior Tories expressed concern it did not take a tougher line on Beijing, instead calling for deeper trade links.

In a letter to Tory MPs, Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy and Shadow International Trade Secretary Emily Thornberry said the vote was a chance to send a “united message” to the Government.

They said: “Parliament can send a united message that genocide can never be met with indifference, impunity or inaction, and must certainly never be rewarded with preferential terms of trade.”