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Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Keir Starmer called Rishi Sunak an ‘inaction man’ during Parliament debate.
Mr Sunak said: ‘As always, the Leader of the Opposition is just playing catch up and hasn’t caught up with the reality of what’s actually happening.’
He said the report relates to a period of investigations in 2019 and 2020, saying since then the UK has launched a new integrated review refresh of the China strategy and has put in place ‘a range of new measures, including… the National Security Protective Agency’.
He said Sir Keir supported former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, ‘a person who wanted to abolish the army, scrap Trident, and withdraw from Nato’.
On China, he said the Government has the ‘most robust policy that has existed every in our country’s foreign policy’, saying it is to protect the country and align the approach with close allies, and to engage ‘where it makes sense’ and to raise ‘our very significant concerns’ – an approach he said was welcomed by allies.
“Inaction man” Rishi Sunak ignored warnings over crises ranging from prisons to schools, Keir Starmer has claimed.
The Labour leader said the Tories had presided over “mayhem in the criminal justice system” after terror suspect Daniel Khalife escaped from Wandsworth prison last week. Mr Starmer accused the Prime Minister of “ignoring warnings” on the state of prisons and the probation system, pointing to the murder of law graduate Zara Aleena by an offender on licence.
Running through a catalogue of failures, including the dodgy concrete crisis gripping schools, Mr Starmer also challenged Mr Sunak over bombshell news that a parliamentary researcher and Conservative aide had been arrested over allegations of spying for China. “Probation, prison, schools, China. Yet again inaction man fails to heed the warnings,” Mr Starmer said in a fiery PMQs clash.
He pointed out some MPs face sanctions, intimidation and threats from the Chinese state.
He said: ‘When I asked the Prime Minister on Monday whether the Foreign Secretary raised the specific issue of the alleged spy arrested in March when he visited China a few weeks ago, the Prime Minister would only say that he raised that ‘type of activity’ but avoided specifics.
‘So, I ask the Prime Minister again, did the Foreign Secretary raise this specific case when he visited China, yes or no?’
Mr Sunak replied: ‘I refer (Sir Keir) to my previous answer where I said very clearly that the Foreign Secretary raised these issues with the Chinese foreign minister who he met, as did I when I had my meeting with premier Li (Qiang) over the weekend.’
Sir Keir swiped that Mr Sunak had still not given a clear answer, adding: ‘What he says now is totally at odds with Parliament’s intelligence and security committee report of July this year. That set out that the Government has no clear strategy when it comes to China.
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