China's 'stranglehold' on critical minerals could leave UK unable to build missiles and anti-drone tech, Tories warn

Labour has allowed China to get a 'stranglehold' over critical minerals that could hinder Britain's plans to rearm, the Tories warned today.

Keir Starmer has been accused of failing to counter Beijing's dominant position in the production and sale of materials vital for everything from drones and missiles to smartphones and electric car batteries.

Shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns said that politically-manufactured shortages of critical minerals, which include metals like lithium, cobalt and nickel, are already being felt on the battlefield in Ukraine.

China spooked the global economy last year when some industries nearly ground to a halt after Beijing imposed export curbs on permanent magnets made of rare earths, an episode which highlighted how reliant Western supply chains in the energy, defence and technology sectors are on these goods.

Writing for the Daily Mail amid a furious row over Labour's willingness to invest in national security, Ms Kearns warned that 'without a steady supply, a nation’s military cannot fire on all cylinders'.

Ministers have recently moved to decrease UK reliance on Chinese imports, last week pledging £50 million to boost domestic production.

It has also sought to diversify access through partnerships with allies including the United States and South Korea.

But the issue was only mentioned once in the Defence Investment Plan, released yesterday, which aims to set out the UK's military spending priorities. 

Ms Kearns, a former chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and a longstanding China hawk, said the chaos in government around Sir Keir's resignation and expected replacement by Andy Burnham meant progress was too slow.

'The Chinese Communist Party has spent years furthering its stranglehold on critical mineral supply chains, from mining to refining,' she wrote.

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