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

China has lifted the sanctions it imposed on serving British MPs and peers in a significant sign of warming relations after Keir Starmer travelled to Beijing for landmark talks with Xi Jinping.

Nine UK citizens were banned from China in 2021, including five Conservative MPs and two members of the House of Lords, targeted for highlighting human rights violations against the Muslim Uyghur community.

The Guardian revealed last year that the Chinese government was reviewing the sanctions, which it introduced in response to what it called “lies and disinformation” about human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

In a round of broadcast interviews in China on Friday, Starmer confirmed that the sanctions on serving MPs and peers would be lifted with immediate effect. He said: “I know that the action taken in relation to our parliamentarians has been a real cause of concern, understandably so.

“And therefore I raised that issue whilst I was here, and the Chinese are absolutely clear in response: the restrictions no longer apply. President Xi said to me that that means all parliamentarians are welcome.

“I think that shows that if you engage, you can raise the difficult issues, the issues that my parliamentary colleagues would have expected me to raise, and therefore I can be clear, the restrictions no longer apply.”

The affected MPs and peers said they would not stop speaking out against human rights abuses, including the targeting of the minority Uyghur Muslim community in Xinjiang province.

They also said the “selective lifting of sanctions solely on sitting parliamentarians is wrong”. An academic, a barrister and a former Tory MP who were also sanctioned appear to remain subject to the measures, possibly including their families.

Starmer opened the door to a UK visit from Xi after the talks in Beijing on Thursday. However, it would have been politically challenging to do so while the sanctions remained in place. Chinese diplomats are banned from parliament after a spying row.

Starmer suggested on Friday that Xi would be welcome in the UK when it hosted the G20 summit next year. “We are hosting the G20 in 2027. China is a G20 country. So of course I’d like to see President Xi come around the G20.”

The prime minister was forced to downplay comments made overnight by Donald Trump about the supposed perils of dealing with Beijing. The US president is due to visit China himself in April.

Asked about Starmer’s visit, Trump told reporters: “Well, it’s very dangerous for them to do that, and it’s even more dangerous, I think, for Canada to get into business with China.” Last week, Trump threatened to level tariffs on Canada if it made a trade deal with China.

Asked about Trump’s view, Starmer told Sky News from Shanghai: “I’ve seen President Trump’s comments. I think, to be fair, he was probably talking more about Canada than the United Kingdom.”

China’s sanctions on the British citizens were a retaliation against the UK imposing sanctions on Chinese officials held responsible for atrocities in Xinjiang. It is understood that those will not be lifted in return.

The five MPs put under sanctions in 2021 were the former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, Tom Tugendhat, Nusrat Ghani, Neil O’Brien and Tim Loughton, who stood down in 2024.