BORIS Johnson faces a major blow up with Beijing as rebel Tories spring restrictions on trade with China on the Government.
Tory grandee Iain Duncan Smith says he has rebel backing to overhaul the Trade Bill so that high court judges can rule what counts as a genocide.
It would mean UK law would trump the UN – where China has a veto.
An amendment was added to the Trade Bill in the House of Lords on Monday which would “nullify trade arrangements” if a high court judge determined a genocide had taken place.
China has been accused of exterminating and persecuting the Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang province – but governments across the globe have stopped short of branding their actions as genocide.
Iain Duncan Smith told HOAR: “I fully back it and I believe that there are a significant number of conservatives who back it.
“We have been arguing about this problem and we’re now putting this in to stop any chance that we will have enhanced trade .
“I think this is the right thing to do. People are tired of the appalling brutality of the Chinese, particularly Chinese communist government but others as well when we shouldn’t really be doing business with them.”
An explanatory note on the bill adds: “The purpose of this amendment is to nullify trade arrangements made under this Bill if the High Court of England makes a preliminary determination that they should be revoked on the ground that the proposed trade partner has perpetrated Genocide.”
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