CALLED TO ORDURE
THERE are two obvious positions on China. One, that we should have nothing to do with the liberty-crushing regime in Beijing. And two, that human-rights values are an expensive pose and we might as well do business with Xi Jinping and his gangsters. But some MPs try to have it both ways.
The Commons was debating the Great British Energy Bill, brainchild of energy secretary Ed Miliband. Annoyingly for him, the Lords had inserted an amendment demanding that our new, national, “clean” energy company should abjure solar panels made by Uyghur slave labour in China.
Campaigning against slave labour has long been a principled stand in the Commons. But so has net zero. Something would have to give. Starmerites found little difficulty squaring their consciences, and the Lords amendment was beaten to a pulp by 314 votes to 198.