Sebastien Lai, the son of jailed Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, has criticised the UK government for not placing conditions on his father’s release during Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to China last week. Speaking at a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, Sebastien said his father’s incarceration was not only a humanitarian and national security issue but also one “where our values are being locked up” along with him.
The visit was the first by a UK leader to China in eight years, during which Starmer is said to have raised the case of the former media tycoon, a prominent pro-democracy voice. In December 2025, Lai, a British citizen, was convicted of national security offences after a nearly two-year trial that international rights groups criticised as politically motivated and an attack on press freedom.
Weeks before the trip, Sebastien met Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and discussed his father’s deteriorating health in solitary confinement. “If it is so important then surely there should be some conditionalities put on my father’s release,” he said, adding that the trip and the approval of a new Chinese embassy in London were significant concessions.
The UK government has sought closer ties with China, securing a visa waiver, the dropping of sanctions on British MPs, and investment deals. However, critics, including former Hong Kong governor Lord Chris Patten, questioned why the prime minister travelled to Beijing without first securing Lai’s release. “It was a tragedy that the only thing that came out of this trip was Johnnie Walker not Jimmy Lai,” Patten said, referring to a whisky tax reduction.
Sebastien said there is no indication of when his father’s sentencing will take place, warning that his death in prison would be catastrophic for both governments. Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, head of Lai’s international legal team, said the UK had made a “strategic misstep” by not putting conditionality on the visit. “It feels to us the UK hasn’t necessarily played the cards it has as well as it could have,” she added.
