The UK has backed Trump's call for an investigation into China's role in the coronavirus outbreak

• The UK backs growing international calls for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak.
• The UK's ambassador to the US says there "definitely needs" to be an investigation into how the outbreak began in China.
• "This is the third virus, I think, to come out of China before the century is a quarter old," Pierce said in a video question and answer session with the Washington Post.
• Australia this week also backed calls for a global investigation into the pandemic's origins.
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The UK has backed President Trump's calls for an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, amid growing international criticism of the role played by the Chinese government.

The UK's ambassador to the US, Dame Karen Pierce, said there "definitely needs" to be an investigation into how the pandemic started in China.

She said the international community needed to investigate the role of Chinese wet markets in the outbreak.

"This is the third virus, I think, to come out of China before the century is a quarter old," Pierce said in a video question and answer session with the Washington Post on Wednesday, reported by Reuters and The Telegraph newspaper.

She added: "I think there definitely needs to be some sort of review or investigation."

Pierce also suggested that the UK supports reform of the World Health Organisation, whose funding from the US was recently cut by Donald Trump.

"I think it's certainly the British Government's position that we do need some reforms in WHO and looking at the international world health regulations," she said.

However, she stressed that the current priority was "tackling the pandemic and [trying to] get on top of the virus."

Her comments came after President Trump said on Monday that his administration was conducting "serious investigations" into Beijing's handling of the outbreak.

"We are not happy with China," he said. "We are not happy with that whole situation because we believe it could have been stopped at the source, it could have been stopped quickly, and it wouldn't have spread all over the world."

Growing international calls for investigation into China's role

Pierce's comments are the latest international call for an investigation into China's role at the beginning of the pandemic.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week said it was "entirely reasonable and sensible that the world would want to have an independent assessment of how this all occurred, so we can learn the lessons and prevent it from happening again."

He called for an independent investigation of the outbreak led by a team with powers akin to those of international "weapons inspectors."

Morrison's remarks came amid an escalating diplomatic row between Australia and China, with Beijing threatening to cut trading ties with Canberra and accusing the Australian government of "petty tricks."

The UK also recently removed China from its list of international coronavirus-outbreak comparisons because of doubt about the accuracy of case numbers in China.

Dominic Raab, the UK's first secretary of state who deputized for Johnson while he recovered from COVID-19, said last week that the UK's relationship with China could not return to "business as usual" after the pandemic.

There is growing pressure on Johnson to loosen the UK's ties with Beijing from his own party. Conservative MPs have launched a "China Research Group" to "promote debate and fresh thinking about how Britain should respond to the rise of China."