Nigel Farage has urged Britons to boycott Chinese-made products to “stop the rise of this horrible, communist regime” following what he perceives as a fracturing of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network after New Zealand rejected plans to challenge its major trading partner, China.

The Brexit leader made the remarks on Thursday after New Zealand’s foreign minister rejected calls from allies in the Five Eyes to expand its remit to include a political scope that would include challenging China.

“We are uncomfortable with expanding the remit of the Five Eyes relationship,” Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said this week.

Farage said that New Zealand — which with Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Canada form the Five Eyes — was essentially “launching a new close alliance with China and they are effectively leaving the Five Eyes intelligence network”.

“We have just lost one of our closest and oldest allies in the world because they are completely in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. New Zealand sold their souls to communist China and why? Well, because lots of their exports go there. And it is just the worst example yet of what China is doing to our world, to our allies,” he added.

However, Farage suggested that Britain’s own political establishment was not above going soft on China, recalling how Prime Minister Boris Johnson initially backed the use of Huawei in the development of its 5G network in January 2020, before pressure from Five Eyes allies and British parliamentarians, as well as a review from GCHQ, resulted in the government announcing a ban on using Huawei equipment in 5G networks by 2027.

“Remember that Boris Johnson wanted to sign up to Huawei, Boris Johnson calls himself a Sinophile,” Mr Farage said, reaching further back in time to the golden era of the Tory Party’s love affair with communist China under Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.

However, the Johnson administration appears to be attempting to exert some pressure on China, with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announcing this week a 95 per cent cut to China’s aid budget — with some £900,000 million remaining earmarked solely to “fund programmes on open societies and human rights”.

On Thursday, MPs backed a motion labelling the oppression of the Uyghurs and others in Xinjiang province as genocide. While non-binding, the vote was a landmark censure against the communist regime.

Farage said, however, that it would take more than government to stop China from becoming the world’s biggest superpower, urging Britons to boycott China-made products where they can.

“At the end of the day, China’s going to become the most powerful and by far the most dangerous country in the world if they continue to get richer and richer.

“And they will continue to get richer and richer if you go on buying the amount of Chinese products you currently are. It’s not easy… but if you want to stop the rise of this horrible, communist regime, do your best to buy fewer Chinese products,” Mr Farage said.

This was not the first time the Brexit leader called for citizens to boycott Chinese goods, making the same request at the height of the Wuhan coronavirus, warning that individual action may be needed to stop rising Chinese hegemony if the West’s politicians fail.

Farage said at the time: “In the final analysis, it is not governments that do business, but individuals making their own choices with their money.

“With this in mind, I pledge today that as far as is humanly possible, I will not knowingly buy a product that is made in China from now on — certainly not while this barbaric regime is in place. If tens of millions of people have the same view, then we will win. If not, then China will rule the world, and no doubt, our politicians will applaud from the sidelines.”