Labour peer who had sanctions lifted by China says it's 'meagre return' for UK

A Labour peer against whom sanctions have been lifted by China during Sir Keir Starmer's visit to Beijing says the move is a "meagre return" from the trip.

Baroness Helena Kennedy KC was among seven parliamentarians sanctioned by China in 2021 for accusing the country of human rights abuses against the Uyghur minority.

The prime minister announced the sanctions had been lifted after talks with President Xi Jinping.

But Baroness Kennedy said that raising the case of Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai was more important than lifting the sanctions. The media tycoon, a British citizen, was found guilty of colluding with foreign forces under a controversial national security law.

Speaking to the BBC's World Tonight programme, Baroness Kennedy said she was pleased the Labour government had secured concessions where Conservative leaders, including David Cameron and Boris Johnson, had not but said she had hoped for more.

"At least they've gone in there and got something out of this," she said, adding: "I'm not going to have balloons on my door and throw confetti around to celebrate this -- I think it's a meagre return, and I'd like to see Jimmy Lai being released."

The peer said she had not yet been briefed on what discussions had taken place about the case of Lai but she told the BBC she "was hoping that we might hear some good news on that front".

The prime minister has confirmed to the BBC that he did raise the Lai case and the treatment of Uyghurs "as you would expect" with President Xi.

The original group of seven to be sanctioned were all vocal critics of China as members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, although former Conservative MP Tim Loughton stood down at the last election.

Baroness Kennedy, a former colleague of Sir Keir Starmer when he was a lawyer, and crossbencher Lord Alton were sanctioned alongside four sitting Conservative MPs - Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Nusrat Ghani, Tom Tugendhat and Neil O'Brien.

They have criticised the "selective lifting of sanctions", saying they would "take no comfort" in China's decision while Lai remains imprisoned and Uyghurs continue to suffer.

Sir Keir's three-day trip to China - the first by a British prime minister since 2018 - is an attempt to thaw relations and he has argued that the lifting of some sanctions "vindicated" his diplomatic approach.

Sir Keir also told the BBC an agreement to halve import taxes on British whisky would come into force on Monday next week, but added that the start date for a deal on visa-free travel for British citizens to China had not yet been agreed.

The UK has confirmed it has not lifted sanctions on any Chinese individuals, but 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.

Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, chair of the Uyghur Tribunal, which is investigating atrocities against the minority group, was also sanctioned, as was Newcastle University academic Jo Smith Finley, whose research focuses on the Uyghurs.

Former security minister Tugendhat accused the prime minister of securing too little, despite sanctions on him lifted.

He told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme that the China deal was "frankly extraordinary and unbelievably bad, not just for this particular round of diplomatic activity but for Britain's standing in the world".

He also criticised the "abasement before going, so allowing the mega embassy and not demanding the release of Jimmy Lai, who as we know is a British citizen in prison in Hong Kong for now more than 1,000 days for the crime of journalism".

The deal was also criticised by Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse, who says she was "arbitrarily denied entry" to Hong Kong to visit her newborn grandson last year. She said a diplomatic reset that ignores "the existence of secret bans" is "not a reset at all".

Hobhouse, a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, has not officially been sanctioned. She was held at the airport, questioned and sent back to Britain - a decision she believes was taken to silence her.

"We need assurance from the prime minister that all parliamentarians can criticise the actions of the Chinese Communist Party without fear of retribution," she said.