Jimmy Lai Conviction

Christine Jardine Excerpts

Monday 15th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

As the hon. Gentleman well knows, it is an independent planning process and it has long been so. This is not just about the UK’s direct engagement with China, but about our engagement through international forums. That is why I have raised Jimmy Lai’s case directly in the G7 and with other Foreign Ministers across the world. It is why we have seen international condemnation of what has happened today. It is also why we are seeking international support for our call for the urgent release of Jimmy Lai, which I think should be the priority for all of us now.

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

I associate myself with the comments about yesterday’s horror in Sydney. I, too, welcome the Foreign Secretary’s clear and unequivocal call for the release of Jimmy Lai, and her condemnation of a politically motivated act that, as others have said, can only cause great fear among the Hong Kong community in this country. She said that a cross-Government approach would be taken. Will she make it clear to China that it cannot just be business as usual from now on, that it cannot expect the super-embassy simply to go ahead, that there will be sanctions, and that we will also protect our energy and national security by imposing mitigating circumstances on any contracts in which it might be involved in the North sea, in wind farms?

[Yvette Cooper]

I think many of the points the hon. Lady raises I have already addressed, but she raises an important further point about our economic security, for example in relation to critical minerals and energy infrastructure. I take those issues immensely seriously. There is more we need to do, working with the G7 countries and other countries around the world, on how we retain our energy security and our wider economic security, and recognise the ways in which China is operating across the world that can cause real challenges to that economic security.