China lifts sanctions on MPs and peers, Starmer says

China has lifted restrictions on some British MPs and peers and will now allow all parliamentarians to visit the country, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

Speaking to Sky News's political editor Beth Rigby, the prime minister said the sanctions have been a "real cause for concern across parliament", and he had raised the issue with China's President Xi Jinping during the trip.

"As a result [of discussions], it's clear from the Chinese that the restrictions no longer apply," Sir Keir said.

"President Xi said what that means is that all parliamentarians are free to travel to China."

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It's understood the UK will not be lifting any sanctions on Chinese officials in return.

China sanctioned five Conservative MPs and two members of the House of Lords in 2021, which was seen as retaliation for sanctions by the UK and other countries on several Chinese officials for their connection to reports of human rights violations.

They were banned from entering China, Hong Kong and Macau.

The MPs sanctioned were former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Nusrat Ghani, Neil O'Brien, and former security minister Tom Tugendhat, as well as Tim Loughton, who stood down from the Commons at the 2024 general election.

China also sanctioned Labour peer and human rights barrister Baroness Helena Kennedy, and crossbench peer Lord David Alton.

All are fierce critics of China.

Listen to Beth, Harriet and Ruth discuss whether Starmer's trip has helped improve UK-China relations...

But the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) suggested it was only current parliamentarians that sanctions had been lifted on - meaning Mr Loughton could still be sanctioned.

In a statement, the seven current and former parliamentarians said: "It appears that sanctions have not been lifted on former MP Tim Loughton, nor on Essex Court Chambers, Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, the Uyghur Tribunal, the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, or Dr Joanne Smith Finley. We also remain unclear as to whether sanctions on our family members are still in force.

They added: "The selective lifting of sanctions solely on sitting parliamentarians is wrong. Parliament exists to represent and defend the people of the United Kingdom. Seeking or accepting preferential treatment for current MPs and peers sends a damaging signal that some are more deserving of protection than others."

Mr Loughton told Sky News he didn't know whether he was still sanctioned or not, and that the first he had heard of the matter was his phone "all of a sudden started to get inquiries from various media outlets".

He said he would be "delighted" to be unsanctioned, "but not as part of a grubby deal" that could mean the "UK government's going to go light on [China's] enormous human rights abuses".

Responding to criticism that he shouldn't have visited China in the first place due to the country's human rights abuses, the prime minister said he wouldn't have been able to get the sanctions lifted had he not made the visit.

"That's something that couldn't have happened if we weren't here, having the leader-to-leader exchange. It doesn't happen if you stick your head in the sand," he told Sky News.

The prime minister also told Rigby he had raised the case of imprisoned British-Chinese dual national Jimmy Lai with Mr Xi.

Mr Lai, who is a Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner, has been held in a high-security prison for five years and in December was found guilty of national security offences.

Sir Keir refused to say whether any progress had been made in securing Mr Lai's release: "I won't go into the details, but I'm absolutely clear about raising it, the manner in which we raised it and the importance of raising it."

He said it wasn't "awkward" to raise the case with Mr Xi, and said, as with discussing the sanctioned parliamentarians, "the purpose of engaging is to seize the opportunities that open up as a result of engagement".

Asked what security precautions he had taken on visiting China amid concerns he could be bugged, the prime minister said: "On a visit like this, of course, we took the necessary precautions."

However, he said he wasn't advised to dress under bed covers, as Theresa May was when she visited China as prime minister in 2018.

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