Exclusive: Hong Kong declines to confirm if formerly sanctioned UK MPs can enter city, after PM says China travel ban lifted

2026-02-05 - 01:07

China has lifted “all restrictions” on six sanctioned British parliamentarians, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said after talks last week with President Xi Jinping. However, the Hong Kong authorities did not respond directly as to whether they would still be denied entry to the city. Immigration Tower. File photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP. As vocal critics of China’s human rights record, Beijing sanctioned UK MPs Iain Duncan Smith, Nusrat Ghani, Tom Tugendhat and Neil O’Brien in 2021. Peers Helena Kennedy and David Alton were also sanctioned, as was now-former MP Tim Loughton – though it is unclear if his sanctions remain in place. All of those targeted were members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. They faced a ban on entering China, Hong Kong and Macau, and Chinese entities were banned from doing business with them. Any Chinese properties they owned would have also been frozen. UK MPs Iain Duncan Smith, Nusrat Ghan and Tom Tugendhat were among those sanctioned by China in 2021. Photo: UK Parliament. When asked by HKFP if the parliamentarians were now free to travel to Hong Kong, a spokesperson for the Immigration Department said on Wednesday: “The Immigration Department (ImmD) does not comment on individual cases. ImmD acts in accordance with the laws and policies in handling each immigration case.” ‘No comfort’ in the decision In a statement last Friday, the sitting MPs said they took “no comfort” in the decision to lift sanctions: “While British citizen Jimmy Lai remains imprisoned, and Uyghurs continue to suffer atrocity crimes, we take no comfort in this decision and will not be silenced.” They called for assurances that British sanctions against four Chinese government officials in connection to human rights in China’s Xinjiang region remain in place. Beijing has consistently denied rights abuses in the Uyghur region. Media tycoon Jimmy Lai faces up to life in prison on national security charges.