Sebastien Lai, the son of jailed Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, has criticised the UK government for failing to attach conditions to his father's release during Prime Minister Keir Starmer's visit to China last week. Speaking at a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, he described his father's incarceration as an issue where "our values are being locked up" along with him.
Jimmy Lai, a British citizen, was convicted of national security offences in December 2025 after a trial condemned by international rights groups as politically motivated. The 78-year-old's health is deteriorating in solitary confinement, his son said, warning that time is running out.
Starmer raised Lai's case during his trip to Beijing, the first by a UK leader in eight years, but Sebastien Lai said more should have been demanded. "If it is so important then surely there should be some conditionalities put on my father's release," he told the all-party parliamentary group on arbitrary detention.
The UK government has faced criticism from former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten, who noted that the only tangible outcome of the visit was a reduction in whisky taxes, not Lai's freedom. "It was a tragedy that the only thing that came out of this trip was Johnnie Walker not Jimmy Lai," he said.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, head of Lai's international legal team, said there had been "a strategic misstep in not putting conditionality". She added: "It feels to us the UK hasn't necessarily played the cards it has as well as it could have."
There is no indication of when sentencing will take place, but Sebastien Lai warned that his father's death in prison would be "catastrophic" for both the UK and Chinese governments. He has not yet met Starmer or Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper since the visit.
