‘The job of the Ministry of Agriculture is to look after farmers. The job of the Foreign Office is to look after foreigners.’ Or so jibed Norman Tebbit about Whitehall’s grandest department. In recent months Mr S has covered the antics of the Foreign Office (FCDO) with a cynical eye, as ministers and mandarins have done everything in their power not to offend President Xi Jinping and his lackeys in Beijing. Whether it’s foot-dragging on a boycott of the Winter Olympics or quietly trying to reopen trade talks with China, there’s every sign that in the corridors of power, the spirit of the ‘golden era’ never truly ended.
Take poor Amanda Milling, who covers the Asia brief. The hapless minister was ripped apart last month in a parliamentary debate over her department’s refusal to label China’s atrocities in Xinjiang as ‘genocide.’ Tory backbenchers queued up to lambast the FCDO’s prevarications and evasions, with one former minister labelling the use of ‘expensive government lawyers to weasel their way out of acting’ as a ‘truly reprehensible’ course of action. Milling’s reward for such a public humiliation? Promotion this week as she added the Middle East brief to her portfolio. Her boss Liz Truss meanwhile talks a good game but sadly the Foreign Secretary’s actions on this issue never seem to match up to the bullish briefings she receives in the press. Talk tough, offer little.
Now Steerpike learns of a new FCDO wheeze. An amendment was last month tabled in the House of Lords to prevent the government from buying NHS equipment from regions where it believes there to be a ‘serious risk of genocide.’ Under first Stephen Kinnock and now Catherine West, Labour has demonstrated a willingness to be more hawkish than the Conservatives on such issues. The Opposition last year ganged up with Tory backbenchers to force the government to pass a compromise amendment which gave select committee chairs the power to reject trade deals with countries with poor human rights records.
One of the guarantees given by ministers last year to assuage Tory rebels on the original ‘genocide amendment’ was to introduce new financial penalties for non-compliance with the transparency requirements of the Modern Slavery Act. Responding to concerns about the abuses in Xinjiang, Truss’s predecessor Dominic Raab said that firms with a turnover of more than £36 million would be fined if they didn’t publish statements confirming that they did not use forced or compulsory labour.
Now, more than a year on, Mr S hears that fines of up to £1 million will be shortly announced by ministers, in an effort to ward off the looming rebellion over the new ‘genocide amendment’ on NHS equipment. Will Tory waverers swallow the line and accept the government’s claims to be acting on Xinjiang? Or will the belated sop fail to impress those growing tired of the government’s shenanigans?
Steerpike looks forward to finding out.
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