Sir Keir Starmer was accused of a ‘monumental diplomatic failure’ in his recent talks with China after it jailed a British citizen for 20 years.
The Prime Minister claimed he had raised the case of Hong Kong democracy campaigner and media mogul Jimmy Lai during his high-profile meeting with President Xi Jinping.
But less than two weeks later the 78-year-old – who has already been in solitary confinement for more than five years – was handed what his son described as a ‘death sentence’ by a court in the Beijing-controlled territory.
Sebastien Lai told the BBC: ‘Given his health, given that he has heart issues, given that he’s lost 10kg over the last year alone, that’s basically a death sentence.
‘Surely a man who has given so much for liberty, for freedom deserves a bit of it himself.’
And daughter Claire Lai said: ‘This is a heartbreakingly cruel sentence. Over the last five years, I have watched my father’s health deteriorate dramatically and the conditions he’s kept in go from bad to worse. If this sentence is carried out, he will die a martyr behind bars.’
Mr Lai – who gained British citizenship in 1996 before Hong Kong was handed over to the Chinese – was targeted for publishing outspoken criticism of Beijing in his Apple Daily newspaper as well as taking part in protests and vigils himself.
He was arrested just weeks after China passed its National Security Law for Hong Kong and has been behind bars since December 2020, with his supporters now increasingly alarmed about his deteriorating health.
On Monday he was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment, the harshest sentence so far under the draconian law, for ‘conspiring to collude with foreign forces’.
And, in the Commons, MPs lambasted Sir Keir for having failed to secure Mr Lai’s release when he went to China just days after granting it permission to build a mega-embassy in London.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘Why did they not hold back on that planning permission to say to the Chinese government, you must release Jimmy Lai now and cancel this prosecution altogether, otherwise you will not get your Chinese Embassy?
‘Instead of which, we’ve given it them free and for nothing. And the Prime Minister was treated like dirt while he was out there.’
Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel said: ‘The fact that Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years, the longest sentence ever under the National Security Law, is not only a reflection of the cruelty inflicted by the Chinese Communist Party, but it’s a monumental diplomatic failure of this feeble and gullible Prime Minister.
‘Just over a week ago, he was with President Xi defending engagement with the CCP. He gave China permission for their super embassy spy hub but failed to secure Jimmy’s release.’
There were also calls for the Government to impose sanctions on the prosecutors and judges involved in the ‘sham trial’.
But Foreign Office minister Seema Malhotra insisted: ‘The Prime Minister’s recent visit allowed us to open up discussion and dialogue directly with the Chinese government at the highest level. There is absolutely no point trying to call for something when you are shouting into a void.
‘We continue those discussions publicly and privately to secure the release of Jimmy Lai that is this government’s priority.’
