Chancellor Rachel Reeves (Image: Getty)
has been slammed after returning from China with just £600 million of investment.
The Chancellor made the trip last week despite turbulence on the UK gilt markets as the Budget fallout continues.
The Labour politician said she had agreed deals worth £600 million to the UK economy over the next five years.
But Tory shadow chancellor Mel Stride branded the visit “tone deaf” and said she should be “reassuring” markets in Britain.
Mr Stride told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “The markets move fairly quickly, and sentiment and confidence is at the heart of the approach that a good Chancellor should take.
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“Now, if you absent yourself and go halfway around the world when bond yields are rocketing up, particularly in this country, with very serious consequences, then you need to be at your station reassuring those markets and I’m afraid it’s rather tone deaf to not have got that in the first place.”
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said Ms Reeves had been “humiliated” by the communist nation.
He said: “The Chancellor went cap in hand to China, downplaying our national security interests. They tossed her small change.
“She’s dug an economic hole and she doesn’t know how to get out.”
Former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng described the £600 million Ms Reeves returned with as a “piddling amount”.
He told the Daily Express: “I think she is being blamed for ‘s inadequacy”.
“This is a Labour problem with their government. It is not just about Rachel from accounts.”
Cabinet minister Peter Kyle insisted that Beijing committing to putting £600 million in the UK was “a start” and “will lead to future investment”.
It comes as increases in the Government’s borrowing costs have sparked concern that the Chancellor will be unable to meet her debt and spending targets.