Starmer seeks stability with China amid rising pressure to cut UK energy costs

Sir Keir Starmer has become the first Prime Minister to visit China since Theresa May in 2018. He has stated that his priority for the trip is to bring the UK’s relationship with China onto a more stable footing, “For years our approach to China has been dogged by inconsistency, blowing hot and cold, from the Golden Age to the Ice Age.” After mounting criticism of his regular trips abroad, Starmer is keen to show his foreign engagements deliver benefits domestically and that this visit will help with the cost of living. 

There are strategic questions that will need to be answered about the government’s approach to China and how this will align with their clean power ambitions. At the centre of this conversation are two recent developments, industry calls for more competition in the UK wind sector, and the government’s decision to delay approval for a £1.5bn Ming Yang turbine factory in Scotland because of security concerns. Both issues underscore the strategic contradictions that Starmer must navigate during his China mission. 

Ahead of Starmer’s trip, Zoisa North‑Bond, Octopus Energy Generation CEO, told the Financial Times that the UK should embrace Chinese technology in the energy sector – Octopus Energy CEO, Greg Jackson, is with Starmer in China. North-Bond made clear that greater competition from allowing Chinese turbine suppliers into the UK market could slash wind project costs and help reduce wind curtailment costs, a growing challenge in Britain’s increasingly renewable grid. Octopus have repeatedly highlighted the issue of constraints over recent months and with public concern over the cost of energy bills remaining at the top of the agenda the government are under increasing pressure to act.  

However, Starmer has delayed a decision on whether to approve a £1.5bn Ming Yang Smart Energy wind turbine factory in Scotland intended to be the UK’s largest and capable of supporting up to 1,500 jobs, due to national security. Speaking during his China visit, Starmer confirmed that “no decision has been made” and stressed that national security considerations remain “uppermost”. Whitehall officials echoed this, confirming that the project would not be announced on the trip despite earlier expectations that it could serve as a diplomatic centrepiece. 

Trade Minister Sir Chris Bryant said this morning the government is considering whether the investment is “safe and secure”, Bryant told BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast programme that a final decision has not been made and that the UK has to be “clear eyed” about its relationship with China. 

Influential Labour MP, Liam Byrne, the Labour chairman of the Commons Business and Trade Committee, said the deal should not go ahead. “We need to be far more vigilant than we have been about safeguarding the UK economy from coercion and unfair competition from China. If we do not block China from projects such as this, we risk Beijing using unfair state subsidies to undermine UK and EU energy independence by destroying the renewable energy market in Europe.” 

Adding to an already complex picture was some unsolicited advice from President Trump, who regularly mentions his disdain for wind turbines. The Trump administration previously warned the government about national security risks that could arise if Ming Yang was allowed to build its plant in Scotland and, while addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Trump claimed that China makes "almost all” of the world’s “windmills”. He went on to say that he wasn’t “able to find any windfarms in China,” and that “they sell them to the stupid people that buy them, but don’t use them themselves.”  

As Starmer continues to navigate the tightrope of domestic political pressure, the UK’s relationship with China and the feasibility of our transition to clean power, he will have to choose a path in the coming months as the strategic ambiguity won’t help businesses or investors to deliver the government’s clean power ambitions.