David Cameron's ‘£40bn raised from Chinese visit’ claim under scrutiny
by Heather Stewart and Phillip Inman from Economics | The Guardian on (#RDY3)
Government struggles to corroborate PM's disputed figure as some of the deals listed have eerie similarity to ones made in past
Downing Street has insisted that the week-long Chinese state visit secured "up to 40bn" of trade and investment deals, after scrambling for much of Friday to substantiate the figure, brandished by David Cameron at a trade mission in Mansion House.
The business secretary, Sajid Javid, said earlier this week that President Xi Jinping's visit would increase trade and investment between Britain and China by 25bn; but the figure had leapt to 40bn by the time the prime minister spoke on Wednesday.
Related: Xi visit shows China is dominant partner in a purely commercial coupling
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