Keir Starmer paid a high price for the red carpet treatment in Beijing.
He gave away the mega-embassy that will put a red flag over the Royal Mint and threaten our underground cables.
He ignored Jimmy Lai, a British citizen languishing in a Chinese jail for more than a thousand days.
He turned a blind eye to a decade of cyber attacks, bullying and violence against British nationals born in Hong Kong who have moved to the UK for safety.
And what did he get for all that?
Nothing. Well, nothing for us.
Instead of hard results, Starmer rushed to hail a so-called “breakthrough”: China lifting sanctions on four sitting British MPs, including me.
Let me be clear about what those sanctions were – nothing.
We were sanctioned for speaking out about human rights abuses, the Uyghur genocide, and the grave security threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party.
I was not sanctioned because I wanted a holiday in Beijing. I was sanctioned because I refused to stay silent.
So when Starmer presents the end of the sanctions as some great diplomatic victory, he misses the point entirely.
We didn’t care about the sanctions, we care about the real victims of China’s repression – Uyghurs in Xinjiang, democrats in Hong Kong, monks and many others in Tibet.
The issue was never the inconvenience of a few individuals being barred from China.
The issue was why China imposes sanctions in the first place: to intimidate democracies, silence critics, and punish anyone who tells the truth about its abuses.
That hasn’t stopped.
Jimmy Lai is still in prison.
The Uyghurs are still persecuted.
China is still carrying out industrial-scale cyber attacks against British businesses.
British nationals from Hong Kong are still being threatened and harassed.
So what’s changed?
Starmer may have secured a symbolic gesture that allows him to pose for photographs and claim progress.
But it is hollow. It is Beijing offering a token concession, while the threats haven’t changed.
Worse, only sitting MPs had sanctions lifted. Not ex-MPs. Not the lawyers, researchers, and campaigners who helped expose the Uyghur slave labour camps. It is a divide-and-rule tactic.
When the same divisive diplomacy happened to the European Parliament many called it out. Even after the lesson from Brussels, Starmer has walked straight into the same trap.
And then came the other headline Starmer brought home: British business people can now travel to China for 30 days without a visa. Downing Street hailed it as another breakthrough.
What’s that really about? We can now fly in, buy Chinese goods, deepen Chinese markets, and help China grow wealthy, all without paperwork.
That isn’t a win for Britain. It’s a win for China.
And it won’t apply to everyone – journalists, and anyone who’s spoken against Beijing could find an easy way in but a very hard way out as political detentions are common.
Everyone knows China matters. It’s too big to ignore and too important to forget. Everything from trade, climate and global health has a connection to Beijing. We have to find ways to work together.
But the way to start isn’t by conceding on the embassy and ignoring Jimmy Lai. Capitulation will never lead to cooperation. This visit proved it.
The Prime Minister arrived with a delegation of business and cultural figures and plenty of warm words about “resetting” relations.
Chinese state media praised him for economic pragmatism and for avoiding confrontation – not very subtle code for compliance with Chinese policies.
That alone tells you who felt they won this summit.
Starmer’s defenders point to a handful of agreements: visa waivers, reduced whisky tariffs, and promises of engagement.
But AstraZeneca used the timing to announce an £11 billion investment into China. But that is not China opening its market to Britain.
That is Britain tying itself even tighter into China’s system.
Compare this with others.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney went to China and came back with actual trade concessions, reportedly cutting tariffs on key exports like canola.
Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo visited Beijing with business priorities front and centre, extracting commercial advantage without surrendering strategic ground.
Starmer gave Beijing symbolism, legitimacy, and the prize of its mega-embassy in London, yet failed to secure justice for Jimmy Lai or meaningful returns for British workers.
Britain deserves better than a Prime Minister dazzled by ceremony while our interests are ignored. Cooperation must deliver for Britain, not just for Beijing.
Red carpets fade quickly but the price we pay for weakness endures.
