UK should designate China a security threat, says Patel

The UK should officially designate China a national security threat, Tory frontbencher Dame Priti Patel has said, as she accused the government of desperation” in its early dealings with Beijing.

- ANDY GREGORY

Speaking in the wake of the row over Prince Andrew’s links to alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, who was barred from the UK after being judged likely to pose a threat to national security, Dame Priti warned that Xi Jinping’s “extraordinary regime” has “had all sorts of incursions in our country”.

In her first interview since being appointed Kemi Badenoch’s shadow foreign secretary, the veteran Conservative MP said she would “absolutely” place China on a list of nations deemed to pose the biggest security risks to Britain, as part of the longdelayed Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (Firs).

“It’s clearly complicated legislation, but China should always be up there,” she said of the plans for a register of foreign lobbyists and hostile state agents, which was introduced by the Tories in 2023 but is not expected to come into force until next summer.