Boris Johnson news live: Updates as PM condemns China sanctions

Dominic Raab has issued a further statement on the Chinese sanctions saga, telling broadcasters Britain would “not be deterred from speaking up” against what he called “industrial-scale human rights abuses taking place in Xinjiang”.

In an earlier statement, the foreign secretary called for China to allow UN human rights inspectors into Xinjiang to “verify the truth”.

The government has said survivor testimonies indicate that more than a million people have been detained without trial in the province, with widespread claims of torture, rape and sterilisations in the camps.

My last post suggested Alex Salmond might – just might – be preparing to announce he is standing at the elections for the Scottish parliament. It’s worth remembering there’s also a by-election coming up in Scotland for a Westminster seat.

Labour and the SNP have chosen their candidates for the Airdrie and Shotts by-election – triggered by the incumbent MP Neil Gray stepping down in order to contest the Scottish parliament seat covering the same area in North Lanarkshire.

Modern studies teacher Anum Qaisar-Javed will contest the seat for the SNP, while local councillor Kenneth Stevenson will be the Scottish Labour candidate. Could Salmond join the contest as an independent? We’ll have to wait and see what he says at 2pm.

Switching focus to Scotland, it looks there’s a very big announcement coming from Alex Salmond at 2pm. There has been speculation that the former SNP leader could be standing in the Holyrood election – presumably as an independent candidate after his spectacular fall-out with Nicola Sturgeon.

The BBC’s Nick Eardley has been told Salmond’s statement “will have significant impact on election” – and will not be about the recent inquiry saga.

Conservative MP Tim Loughton – one of the five hit by sanctions this morning – has had his say in the matter, admitting he had been taken “a bit by surprise” by the news.

“This is such an inept measure by the Chinese. And frankly, speaking for the nine individuals who have been sanctioned, it’s only going to refortify our efforts to call out China for the industrial-scale human rights abuses going on in Xinjiang and elsewhere within China.”

Loughton also denied the Tory government gives China preferential treatment when it comes to trade, after Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy suggested No 10 was trying to have it both ways on trade and human rights.

Dominic Raab has had more to say on the sanctions row. He said the bans imposed by China would not stop British MPs and other leading figures from speaking out about the “industrial-scale human rights abuses taking place in Xinjiang”.

The foreign secretary told broadcasters on Friday: “We stand in total solidarity with the nine individuals who were sanctioned today.

“It is not going to stop them, it is not going to stop theBritish government from speaking up about the industrial-scale human rights abuses taking place in Xinjiang.

“If the Chinese government want to continue with these blanket denials that anything wrong is taking place in Xinjiang, the obvious thing for them to do would be to allow access to the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet.”

We’ll switch focus now to Rishi Sunak, who is trending on Twitter at the moment, with plenty of people having their say on the chancellor’s comments on getting back to the office this year.

Sunak told The Telegraph “you can’t beat” the team work that comes from people “actually spending physical time together”.

He also claimed staff could “vote with their feet” and quit their jobs if British companies don’t end working from home when lockdown ends.

Left-wing activist Liam Young claimed Sunak had “been on the millionaire landlord zoom meeting”, while satirist James Fenton suggested not everyone would be as excited as the chancellor about getting back to their desk.

China has slapped sanctions on five Conservative MPs, including former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, claiming they had “maliciously spread lies” about Beijing’s treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority group.

They will now be banned from entering China, Hong Kong and Macao, and Chinese citizens and institutions will be prohibited from doing business with them.

But why? What have they actually done? My colleague Adam Forrest reports:

One of the MPs sanctioned by China in the row over the treatment of Uighur Muslins has said the UK cannot, “realistically”, cut off all trade relations with the superpower – because “it’s too big”.

Nusrat Ghani, the Conservative MP for Wealden in East Sussex, said instead Britain had to ensure it “re-evaluates” its relationship with China and “works to ensure [the UK’s] democracy is protected”.

Speaking to BBC News on Friday, Ms Ghani stressed that “whatever sanctions are in place for me and my colleagues, they are nothing compared to what is being to do the Uighur people”.

“If China had nothing to hide, they wouldn’t have sanctioned us for talking about the Uighur and, furthermore, they would’ve allowed United Nations officials to go in and check it out,” she said.

Asked why the UK’s Chinese embassy had today claimed the UK’s views of Uighur people were based on “fake reports” and “satellite images”, Ms Ghani said the Chinese Communist Party had been producing documents to show the prison camps” existed “for some time”.

“They’ve spoken about ‘freeing’ Uighur women from having children, ie forcing them into sterilisation, which has led to a birth rate drop of 84 per cent,” she said.

“They’ve also boldly spoken about the re-education centres which are known to separate Uighur children from their families and break those family bonds by institutionalising them so they have no idea about their background or culture.”

She added: “These are barbaric acts of human rights abuses.”

Ms Ghani finished by saying the sanctions were designed to “intimidate parliamentarians from speaking about Uighur people” and that her greatest fear was Uighur people “may be undergoing even greater abuses which we have no way of knowing”.

Taking a step back from the Chinese sanctions row, a Cabinet minister attacked curbs on teaching amid the controversy over children being shown a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, saying “issues should not be censored”.

Protests broke out outside a West Yorkshire school on Thursday as parents complained that the image had been taken from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Batley Grammar School apologised over the “inappropriate” image, shown during a religious studies class this week, and suspended a teacher – who is now reported to be in hiding.

But communities secretary Robert Jenrick said: “This is a country based on free speech and teachers should be able to tackle difficult and controversial issues in the classroom – and issues should not be censored.”

Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick reports:

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the UK said “lies of the century” were being spread about what was going on in Xinjiang and criticised the UK’s deployment of sanctions.

He told a televised press briefing on Friday: “Human rights in Xinjiang cannot be defined by a few satellite images and fake reports cobbled together by people thousands of miles away.”

The spokesman added: “For some time, potent forces have fabricated a large amount of lies of the century about Xinjiang and used these lies to demonise China and interfere in China’s internal affairs in order to serve their political agenda.

“Some countries, including the UK, even proposed so-called sanctions against China. We strongly oppose and reject this.”