Steve Hilton denounces lavish treatment of President Xi Jinping, saying UK should consider sanctions on China ‘not rolling out red carpet’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

David Cameron will hold lengthy talks with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, at Downing Street on Wednesday as his former strategy adviser Steve Hilton denounced the visit as a “national humiliation” and “sucking up” to the communist leader.

Hilton, who left Downing Street in 2012 to teach at Stanford University in California and is CEO of tech startup Crowdpac, told BBC Newsnight that Britain’s lavish treatment of the Chinese leader was “the worst national humiliation since we went cap in hand to the IMF in the 1970s”.

“The truth is that China is a rogue state just as bad as Russia or Iran, and I just don’t understand why we’re sucking up to them rather than standing up to them as we should be,” he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former strategy adviser Steve Hilton remains close to David Cameron despite leaving Downing Street in 2012. Photograph: REX Shutterstock

The former adviser said he thought the government should be much tougher. “I think that we should consider sanctions on China, not rolling out the red carpet.”

Kowtowing to China’s despots is morally wrong and makes no economic sense | Steve Hilton Read more

His remarks, his strongest attack on Cameron and chancellor George Osborne’s judgement, came as Britain seeks to cement multibillion pound trade deals during the Chinese president’s four-day state visit to the UK.

Investment by Beijing in Britain’s first UK nuclear power plant in a generation is expected to be confirmed as part of what the government hopes will amount altogether to £30bn of agreements.

Hilton said Britain’s US partners were bewildered by Cameron’s attitude, adding that the UK could make these infrastructure investments without needing to go to China for finance.

Xi’s itinerary on Wednesday includes a visit to Imperial College London with Prince Andrew, an exhibition on cultural collaboration with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, a meeting with Cameron at No 10 and a banquet at London’s Guildhall.

Although Hilton left Downing Street three years ago, he remains in close touch with Cameron and helped the prime minister with his recent speech at the Conservative party conference in Manchester that promised an all-out war on poverty.