THE Government should block China from acquiring strategic British industries, former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith says.

He criticised Ministers’ failure to use legislation to stop a Chinese-owned firm buying Newport Wafer Fab, which is the country’s largest producer of silicon semiconductors that are used to make computer chips.

Asked what the Government should do, Sir Iain told GB News: “Do what you said you would do, because the reason we passed this legislation was for it to be used.

“And let there be no uncertain doubts about all of this – Russia has reminded us that if you deal with countries on the basis of how you wish they were, rather than how they are, you are going to get your hands burnt.

“China is set to become the largest economy in the world because the West has rushed and flooded it with investment and money because they were able to do things cheaper.”

He made his comments during an interview during On The Money with Liam Halligan on GB News.

Sir Iain added: “Under normal circumstances that is a normal part of global global dealing, but not when you’re dealing with autocracies.

“I mean this is a government, for god’s sake, it’s committing genocide on the Uyghur people – slave labour, a lot of products are made in China under slave labour, the Tibetans are in slave labour camps, the Uyghurs are in slave labour camps.

“They [China claims to] possess the South China Sea without any rights to it whatsoever. They’ve trashed the Sino-British agreement on Hong Kong, arresting peaceful democracy campaigns, putting them in jail for life, often torturing them.

“This is not a government that we should be assuming is OK on these matters. We’ve now got to wake up, otherwise, we’re gonna end up in a seriously dangerous position.”