Politics LIVE: Labour issued 'serious' national security warning as Miliband's net zero agenda to 'hand power to Beijing'
WATCH: Ben Pile discusses Labour's net zero drive on GB News
GB NEWS
Labour has been slapped with a series of national security warnings amid reports the party is angling for Chinese investment into its net zero drive.
Diplomats have said the Government is involved in discussions with "leading Chinese wind power companies about investing in manufacturing or assembly plants in the UK" - but ex-MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove has warned against relying on China for Britain's energy infrastructure, The Times reports.
Dearlove has claimed Energy Secretary Ed Miliband would ignore security services' advice in favour of an "ideologically driven" push to reach net zero.
It's not just security personnel - Labour's own MPs have raised fears that Chinese state-run companies are being given control over key British infrastructure and that cheap imported goods will undercut any attempt to develop coastal areas in the UK.
One said: "There is a persistent and widespread infiltration of energy generation - and, frankly, while the Government needs to generate growth, it can't come at any cost.
"Rachel Reeves and others need to make sure they're going into these discussions about driving Chinese capital into the UK economy with eyes wide open. There are serious potential downsides that may come from Chinese investment, which we saw with things like Huawei."
Miliband is slated to follow Reeves to China in a few months' time after vowing back in September to "expand and deepen" UK-China ties on renewable energy.
But one Whitehall source warned that "when ministers have asked about the risks in the past, the answer has basically been it would be too expensive to uncouple ourselves from China if we're going to meet net zero goals".
But a Government spokesman hit back, saying: "We take a consistent, long-term and strategic approach to managing relations with China and will co-operate where we can, compete where we need to, and challenge where we must."
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Rachel Reeves accused of 'spaffing away' £9BILLION in taxpayer cash on Chagos surrender in furious attack on Labour
Andrew Griffith told GB News this morning that the Chancellor 'doesn't have any credibility'
POOL
Rachel Reeves has been accused of "spaffing away" £9billion on the Chagos Islands surrender in a scathing attack on Labour by the Shadow Business Secretary.
Andrew Griffith told GB News this morning that the Chancellor "doesn't have any credibility" amid spiralling doubts over Labour's economic plans - and issued a series of swipes at the Government's "blind panic" to boot.
"I don't think she's got any credibility," Griffith said. "This is a government that's spanking billions up the wall on failed ideas around energy, that's trying to desperately pay Mauritius to take away some of our sovereign territory - another £9billion that she's spaffing away.
He added: "It's not a credible idea that Rachel Reeves is now going to come out and make difficult decisions - all of the decisions you've made have been the wrong ones!
"She inherited the fastest growing economy in the G7. That is no longer the case... This is a Chancellor who's so out of her depth, she needs a decompression chamber. All of the choices she's made are wrong."
Tony Blair urges Britons not to 'self-diagnose depression' as UK 'can't afford mental health benefits bill'
Tony Blair has told Britons not to self-diagnose depression as the country cannot afford a "spiralling" mental health benefits bill.
Speaking to LBC, the ex-Prime Minister warned that many issues were simply part of "the challenges of life" - not medical conditions like anxiety or depression.
"I think we have become very, very focused on mental health and with people self-diagnosing," Blair said.
"We're spending vastly more on mental health now than we did a few years ago... And it's hard to see what the objective reasons for that are."
"Life has its ups and downs and everybody experiences those. And you've got to be careful of encouraging people to think they've got some sort of condition other than simply confronting the challenges of life.
"We need a proper conversation about this because you really cannot afford to be spending the amount of money we're spending on mental health."
Britain braces for 'ruthless' public spending cuts as Labour scrambles to mop up financial chaos
Reeves's October Budget took day-to-day public spending from one per cent a year under the Tories to 1.5 per cent a year
PACabinet Ministers have been told to be "ruthless" in sniffing out cuts to public spending as Labour wrestles with surging borrowing costs and rising doubts over its economic plans.
An internal letter from the Treasury about Labour's spending review, which is due to conclude in June, warns that "success will require ruthless prioritisation" - with "difficult" decisions set to follow, according to The Telegraph.
The letter, from Chief Treasury Secretary Darren Jones, vows that growth - Labour's much-repeated goal - is the only way to improve Britain's public services without further tax hikes on working Britons.
But growth forecasts have fallen, the pound has weakened, and a surge in the cost of government debt has put Rachel Reeves's own borrowing rules at risk of being broken.
Reeves's October Budget took day-to-day public spending from one per cent a year under the Tories to 1.5 per cent a year.
But she spent much of the £40bn raised in her Budget on the NHS and education - prompting fury from her shadow counterpart Mel Stride.
He told the BBC: "We should have had a different approach to the economy that didn't tax the daylights out of businesses... We should have had something from this Government that was far more about productivity."
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