Sebastien Lai, the son of jailed Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai, has criticised the UK government for failing to place 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 Lai said his father’s incarceration was not only a humanitarian and national security issue, but 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. Starmer is said to have raised the case of Jimmy Lai, a British citizen convicted of national security offences in December 2024 after a near two-year trial criticised by international rights groups as politically motivated. Sebastien Lai noted that he had met Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper weeks before the trip to discuss 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. The trip was a big thing to have been given away, the embassy as well,” Lai said, referring to the approval of a new Chinese embassy in London. Critics have questioned why the prime minister travelled to Beijing without first securing Lai’s release, despite tangible gains such as a visa waiver and investment deals.
Former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten also weighed in, saying “it was a tragedy that the only thing that came out of this trip was Johnnie Walker not Jimmy Lai,” referencing the reduction on whisky taxes agreed during the visit. Lord Patten added that while Starmer raised the case, the Chinese response remains unknown.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, head of Jimmy Lai’s international legal team, acknowledged a shift in urgency from the government but said the strategy remains unclear. “We make no secret of the fact we think there’s been a strategic misstep in not putting conditionality,” Gallagher said. “It feels to us the UK hasn’t necessarily played the cards it has as well as it could have.”
Sebastien Lai warned that “time is running out” for his father and that it would be catastrophic for both governments should he die in prison. There is no indication of when sentencing will take place, he added. “Surely a man who defended freedom deserves a bit of it himself,” Lai said.
