Jimmy Lai Conviction

Tom Tugendhat Excerpts

Monday 15th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s championing of Jimmy Lai. She is right: this is about some of the most basic freedoms of all. It is about freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly—freedom to gather—and also the fundamental freedoms in relation to journalism that are so important and have been such an important part of Hong Kong’s identity and history for so long. They were embodied in the declaration to recognise that uniqueness about Hong Kong, which is why we will continue to maintain them. I can assure my hon. Friend that the Prime Minister has already raised this directly with his counterparts, as have many other Ministers, and we will continue to do so.

[Tom Tugendhat (Tonbridge) (Con)]

Let me start by saying that I greatly welcome the Foreign Secretary’s words about the horrific antisemitic murders in Australia. To those who died, let us all just say, “May their memories be a blessing.”

When we talk about Hong Kong and when we talk about Jimmy Lai, we should remember that the attack on Jimmy Lai—the arrest of Jimmy Lai—is not just a punishment against his family or against him, but part of the repression from the Chinese state. It is being used deliberately to threaten and intimidate Hongkongers here in the United Kingdom. When we talk about standing up for Jimmy Lai, we are actually talking about standing up for ourselves. We are talking about defending our own freedoms and defending the liberties that British people have the right to expect, both at home and abroad.

Will the Foreign Secretary forgive me—I recognise that she been in the role for only a matter of months—when I say that what we are hearing, again, is the bureaucratisation of process and not the leadership that politics is supposed to offer? When we do not hear that decisions about, for instance, the embassy or the visit are potentially on the line, Beijing hears that it can just continue as normal. Let us not pretend that a fundamentally strategic decision such as the siting of an embassy is the mere duty of a bureaucrat. It is not. It is the role of a Government to offer leadership and direction, and I am afraid that at the moment this Government are offering none.

[Yvette Cooper]

Having been Home Secretary before becoming Foreign Secretary, I am very clear about the nature of the security threats that China poses. The right hon. Gentleman is right to say that this is not simply about the threat to Jimmy Lai, and not simply about this particular prosecution. In itself it is used more widely as part of transnational repression, which is something I take immensely seriously, because this is not just about British citizens in Hong Kong but about residents here on UK soil. It is because we take that so seriously that we have strengthened our state threat response.

As the right hon. Gentleman will know, the sentencing is expected to take place in the new year. We are clear about the fact that we need the Chinese Government to hear the condemnation, not just from the UK but from partners around the world, of what has happened in respect of the politically motivated prosecution in this case, and to recognise the urgent humanitarian circumstances relating to Jimmy Lai. We will continue to make that a central issue in all our discussions with the Chinese Government. The right hon. Gentleman will be aware that there are separate processes for different things, and, given his background and experience, he will also be aware of the importance of recognising independent processes.