Now MPs turn sights on China’s nuclear deal
TORY rebels have vowed to fight government plans for a Chinese- designed nuclear power station.
Fresh from their victory in seeing Huawei banned from Britain’s 5G mobile network, senior backbenchers say their next target will be to halt Beijing’s growing involvement in the UK’s nuclear industry.
The flashpoint will be a new power plant in Bradwell, Essex, which under current plans is to be designed by China General Nuclear Power Corporation, a company linked to the Beijing government.
It comes just days after Boris Johnson was forced into a humiliating U-turn and announced the Government would block Chinese telecoms giant Huawei’s involvement in the development of Britain’s 5G mobile systems. Beijing has vowed retaliation for the move, which comes after years in which relations between the UK and China have become much closer.
The U-turn was pushed upon the Prime Minister by growing opposition on the Tory benches in the Commons, led by Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs select committee. He set up the China Research Group, a group of about 50 Tory MPs who raised concerns over Huawei.
Mr Tugendhat told Bloomberg that the MPs were now turning their fire on plans to build Chinese nuclear power stations in the UK.
Critics are concerned about Bradwell because it has a design which is different from the Chinese-funded nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset. This is built to a design by French energy firm EDF, although CGN is a major investor. Mr Tugendhat said: ‘The Bradwell power station raises many concerns. Economically it makes little sense to run two different designs, and with growing concern over Chinese control of critical national infrastructure, it’s hard to imagine it would get through Parliament.’
Conservative MP Damian Green, a former Cabinet minister and a member of the CRG, said: ‘We are winning the argument at the moment because China is making the case as eloquently as it could be that it is not to be trusted.
‘It’s bad diplomacy to think this wolf-warrior tough talk is going to work against Britain. It just doesn’t.’
One minister told Bloomberg: ‘The CRG is genuinely influential in that it gives a sense of where the mainstream middle of the Conservative Party is. Ambitious people have been persuaded this is not a group of head-bangers.’ Among the CRG’s members are aides to several Cabinet ministers, including Alicia Kearns, who works for Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden.
Another critic of China is former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who has set up the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which includes US senators Marco Rubio, a Republican, and Bob Menendez, a Democrat, alongside representatives from other countries including Australia, Japan and Canada.
Sir Iain said his aim was to have politicians from ‘ both sides of the aisle’ in every country, who will act in concert over areas of concern such as the treatment of Uighur Muslims and co-ordinate international condemnation and demands for sanctions against Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam.
‘Not a group of head-bangers’