Eight in 10 Britons urge Boris Johnson to push for an international inquiry into China’s handling of coronavirus crisis as three quarters of people say they believe Beijing is to blame for allowing deadly disease to spread
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- The new survey found seven in 10 people back taking legal action against China
- Dominic Raab has said no more ‘business as usual’ with China post-pandemic
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An overwhelming majority of Britons believe Boris Johnson should demand an international investigation into China’s handling of the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak.
Over 80 per cent of people in the UK want Beijing to face a global inquiry into what happened, according to a poll commissioned by the Henry Jackson Society think tank.
Meanwhile, seven in ten people believe ministers should try to take legal action against the Chinese government if it is found to have broken international law in relation to its outbreak response.
The poll numbers come amid rising Tory MP fury over the communist state’s actions, with Beijing having faced repeated questions over the accuracy of its death toll figures.
Boris Johnson, pictured in Downing Street on March 19, is under growing pressure to demand an international probe into China’s handling of the initial coronavirus outbreak
There are now growing calls for an international probe with senior Conservatives urging the government to conduct a total reset of relations with China once the pandemic is over.
Downing Street sources have previously warned China it faces a ‘reckoning’ over its handling of the outbreak.
Any push by the UK government for China to open itself up to an investigation would have the support of most of the British public, based on the latest poll’s findings.
The survey, published by The Times, found that three quarters of Britons – 74 per cent – believe China is to blame for the spread of the disease.
The growing backlash against the Chinese government has also prompted renewed pressure on Downing Street to revisit its decision to grant Huawei a role in building the UK’s 5G network.
The US has urged its allies not to use the Chinese tech giant in critical infrastructure due to security concerns. Those concerns have always been rejected by Huawei.
Some 40 per cent of the British people are opposed to Huawei being involved in the network while 27 per cent are in favour of the firm being involved.
The Henry Jackson Society has suggested the UK could win hundreds of millions of pounds in damages if it was to pursue legal action against China over the outbreak.
Alan Mendoza, executive director of the society, said: ‘It’s now up to the government to act on its promise this week that there will not be “business as usual” with China post-pandemic, and that it’s listening to the British people’s views about who is to blame.’
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last week warned China it faces ‘hard questions’ about the source of the coronavirus disease.
He said there would have to be a ‘deep dive’ into the facts around the outbreak, which started in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Speaking at a daily Downing Street press conference, Mr Raab had said: ‘I think there absolutely needs to be a very, very deep dive after the event review of the lessons – including of the outbreak of the virus – and I don’t think we can flinch from that at all, it needs to be driven by the science.’
He said such a probe would need to ‘look at all sides of this and do it in a balanced way’ but he added that ‘there is no doubt we can’t have business as usual after this crisis’.