SHANGHAI, Jan 30 (Reuters) - China is set to lift restrictions which it had imposed on a group of British lawmakers, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday, meaning that they will now be free to travel to China.
Starmer made the announcement during his four-day visit to China, the first by a UK leader in eight years, aimed at improving relations despite ongoing concerns over espionage, human rights and other issues.
The Prime Minister told the BBC that he raised the issue of sanctioned lawmakers with China's President Xi Jinping, who responded that "restrictions no longer apply".
"President Xi said to me that means all parliamentarians are free to travel to China," Starmer said. "One of the benefits of engaging is to not only seize the opportunities, but to raise those difficult sensitive issues."
In 2021, China imposed sanctions on nine Britons, including Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative Party, accusing them of spreading what it called "lies and disinformation" about alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Starmer's spokesperson said Britain would not be lifting sanctions on Chinese individuals in return for the lifting of restrictions on the British parliamentarians.
Some of the group of sanctioned British lawmakers said in a statement responding to the possible lifting that they would rather remain under sanction than have their status used as a "bargaining chip" to justify the removal of Chinese officials from Britain's sanctions list.
"We would reject any deal that prioritises our personal convenience over the pursuit of justice for the Uyghur people," the group, which includes former security minister Tom Tugendhat, said in a statement.
China last year lifted sanctions on members of the European Parliament and its human rights subcommittee.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill, writing by Catarina Demony, editing by Sarah Young)
