China has lifted sanctions on six British MPs and peers, Starmer says

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said China has lifted "all restrictions" on six current members of the British Parliament, after talks with President Xi Jinping.

Speaking to the BBC in Shanghai, Sir Keir said a travel ban and other sanctions "no longer apply" to those parliamentarians, which includes four Conservative MPs and two peers in the House of Lords.

The PM said the outcome "vindicated" his approach, suggesting his visit to China had "provided the opportunity for a leader-to-leader discussion on sensitive issues".

But in a statement, the MPs and peers targeted said they did not want to be "used as a bargaining chip" and would rather remain sanctioned.

Sir Keir's three-day trip to China - the first by a British prime minister since 2018 - is an attempt to thaw relations with the country, which is the second-biggest economy in the world behind the US.

The prime minister said the UK's relationship with China was in a "good, strong place" following his talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday.

But there is disquiet among critics of China who argue the country has a poor record on human rights and poses a threat to the UK's national security.

The Conservatives have accused Sir Keir of "kowtowing" to China.

Sir Keir said he knew the sanctions on MPs and peers were "a cause of concern, which is why I did raise it".

He said the lifting of those restrictions "rather vindicates my approach because it's only because we're here that we have had the engagement and that has provided the opportunity for a leader-to-leader discussion on sensitive issues".

China imposed the sanctions in 2021 and Conservative MPs Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Nusrat Ghani, Tom Tugendhat, Neil O'Brien, Tim Loughton - who is no longer in Parliament - were among those targeted.

Peers Baroness Kennedy and Lord Alton, who are all members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, were also sanctioned.

They were banned from entering China, Hong Kong and Macau, their property in China was frozen and Chinese citizens and institutions were prohibited from doing business with them.

At the time, the then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson said those sanctioned were "shining a light" on "gross human rights violations" in China.

China has been accused of committing crimes against humanity against the Uyghur population and other mostly-Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang.

The Chinese government has denied all allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

The UK has not lifted sanctions on any Chinese individuals.

It is not known if restrictions have been lifted on other people sanctioned by China, including Loughton who stood down at the general election in 2024.

In a statement, the British parliamentarians targeted by China said they would "rather remain under sanction indefinitely than have our status used as a bargaining chip to justify lifting sanctions on those officials responsible for the genocide in Xinjiang".

They added: "We will not accept any reprieve that applies only to sitting lawmakers while others, including civil society organisations, remain sanctioned."