Britain should talk itself up more, says Starmer on return from China

Britain needs to be better at talking itself up, Sir Keir Starmer said as he returned from leading a trade delegation to China.

Reflecting on his four-day trip to Beijing and Shanghai, the Prime Minister said the 54-strong business delegation had “a real sense of can-do” and a willingness to seize the opportunities China presents.

He told reporters on his flight from Shanghai: “They’re real glass half-full people and they see the opportunity.

“That’s why we want to take all these delegations because they see opportunity in what we’re doing and we need a bit more of that.”

Asked what he could do to project that sense of optimism at home, he said: “I think we’ve all got a responsibility to inject that optimism and make sure that we talk up what we’re good at as a country, and we’re not always as good at that as we should be.”

Sir Keir’s comments followed a heavily trade-focused visit to China, the first by a British prime minister since 2018 as Labour attempts to “reset” relations with Beijing.

The visit secured agreements on reducing whisky tariffs and visa-free travel for British citizens, as well as commitments for more talks on a deal on trade in services.

Sir Keir secured a political win following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who agreed to lift sanctions imposed on British parliamentarians in 2021.

He said he hoped Mr Xi would visit Britain in 2027 as part of the G20 summit hosted by the UK.

Asked what Britain could learn from China’s approach to technology, Sir Keir said: “On technology and on things like infrastructure, the speed at which they’re acting is really important.

“I feel that on things like infrastructure, we’re too slow in the United Kingdom.”

As well as its rapid construction of infrastructure projects, China has widely adopted technology such as the app Alipay, which acts as both a payment system and a way of order goods and services such as taxis.

Asked if this could provide a model for his flagship digital ID programme, Sir Keir said he was not looking to China for inspiration.

He said: “We’ll do it our own way, with a UK perspective.”

As well as business leaders, the Prime Minister was accompanied by representatives of cultural institutions including the National Theatre and the Science Museum.

In Shanghai, he leant into the cultural side of the mission, meeting design students and a National Theatre workshop along with actor Rosamund Pike.

During their visit, Ms Pike said she thought Mandarin was “the language of the future”, adding her children both speak the language.

Asked whether he thought more people should learn Mandarin, Sir Keir stopped short of saying it should be taught in schools, but said he thought businesses would want more people to learn the language “as we enhance relations”.

He pointed to university exchanges or the British Council’s Mandarin excellence programme as “a good place to do it”.