Afternoon summary
Keir Starmer has taken a major step towards rapprochement with China, opening the door to a UK visit from Xi Jinping in a move that drew immediate anger from British critics of Beijing. As Pippa Crerar and Rowena Mason report, during the first visit by a British prime minister to China in eight years – a period which Starmer described as an “ice age” – he said talks with the Chinese president had left the bilateral relationship in a stronger place. However, while Starmer and his team were flaunting the results of the visit – including a visa waiver, a cut in whisky tariffs and economic cooperation agreements – there was growing concern in the UK over the prospect of a return trip.
Police-recorded homicides in England and Wales have fallen to their lowest level in more than 40 years – driven by a drop in knife crime, PA Media reports. PA says 499 homicides were recorded in the year to September 2025, down 7% from 539 in the previous 12 months, according to ONS figures.
Updated
Yesterday political journalists got an email from Robert Ford saying Reform UK and the Green party were “neck and neck to win the Gorton and Denton byelection”. Politicos know that Robert Ford is a great elections expert, and it was surprising that he was quite so negative about Labour’s chances in the seat, all factors considered.
But this was Betfred’s Robert Ford – who may be a great expert on betting odds, but isn’t a politics professor.
Thankfully, his namesake (or Rob Ford, as he prefers) has pronounced on the byelection too. He has written a very detailed post about the byelection on his Substack blog, which is probably the definitive psephological guide to the contest.
It includes this chart about the demographics of the seat, which is a mix of Denton (largely white) and Gorton (less than 50% white, 40% Muslim, 42% graduate or student).
As Ford explains, there’s a catch. There are twice as many voters in the constituency from the Gorton end (the green bars) as from the Denton end (the blue bars).
Ford does not predict the result, and his article is worth reading in full, but he says Reform UK may struggle to win.
Though Reform have gained a lot of ground in the national polls, they may find Gorton and Denton, where they start 36 points behind Labour, a tough nut to crack. Reform poll poorly among young voters, university graduates, and ethnic minorities – all groups found in large numbers in this seat’s Manchester wards. The three Denton wards have a more Reform-friendly profile but Denton makes up just a third of the seat’s total electorate. There is no history of radical right success in any of these wards, and Reform likely begin with next to no organisational presence in the seat, having stood no candidates here in 2024.
Ford says, on paper, Labour should have the best chance. But he goes on:
Things are not so simple for a governing party polling below 20%, led by the most unpopular prime minister in polling history, a prime minister who has particularly struggled with young progressives and Muslim voters. Labour’s vote already fell sharply here in both the 2024 general election and the 2024 locals, as both Muslim voters and younger graduates in the Manchester wards registered their discontent with a party seemingly more interested in listening to Reform voters than listening to them.
And, as for the Green party, Ford says they will “hope that a radical left message on domestic and foreign policy will make them the obvious vehicle for discontent among young progressives and Muslims”. But they face competition from the Workers Party of Britain, who could “easily play spoiler, taking a large enough slice off the Muslim electorate to make a Green or Labour win harder, and a Reform win easier”, Ford says.
The latest episode of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. It features Pippa Crerar, who is in China with the PM, discussing the trip with Kiran Stacey.
'Decade of lies, deceit and cover-up' - Anas Sarwar blasts Scottish government over hospital contaminated water scandal
Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar used today’s session of first minister’s questions to press John Swinney further on the Glasgow hospital where contaminated water has been linked to infections and some deaths among patients, including children being treated for cancer.
Sarwar said he had “damning evidence” from minutes of meetings between Glasgow health board officials and the Scottish government that “political pressure” was applied to open the Queen Elizabeth university hospital in April 2015, just before the general election.
This has previously been denied by Swinney and former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, while the health board has clarified that its reference to pressure in evidence to the inquiry into the building’s infection issues related to internal pressure.
Sarwar told MSPs:
That decision to open the hospital early has resulted in a decade of lies, deceit and cover-up, bullying and gaslighting of staff, families being lied to and denied the truth, and infections that led to the deaths of children, and possibly adults too – all because politics was put before patient safety.
Swinney said all these matters would be dealt with by the inquiry, which heard its final sessions of evidence last week with some shocking admissions from the health board. It finally admitted there was a possible link between the water system and patient infections, as well as acknowledging that the hospital opening before it was ready.
Labour accuses Goodwin of being 'snowflake' after Reform UK complains to police about attack ad using misleading video clip
Labour has accused Matt Goodwin, the Reform UK candidate in Gorton and Denton of being a “snowflake” after he complained to the police about a misleading video of him it posted on social media.
On Tuesday Labour posted a 10-second clip on X of Goodwin speaking at an event where he said he was “unfortunate enough” to be in Manchester recently where there was no energy. Gorton and Denton is on the outskirts of Manchester and the caption on the video said: “This is what Reform’s latest candidate thinks about where he’s standing to represent.”
As the Telegraph reports, this was misleading, because Goodwin was referring to attending the Tory conference in Manchester, not the city itself. Reform UK complained to the police on the grounds that this was a breach of the Representation of the People’s Act 1983, which bans any “false statement of fact” against a candidate.
Today Greater Manchester police said they were not taking any action because they did not think an offence had been committed.
Labour responded by taunting Goodwin on social media. These are from the Labour Press account.
Matt Goodwin is a snowflake - pass it on https://t.co/auOcLgT3dV
— Labour Press (@labourpress) January 29, 2026
So much for this, eh? pic.twitter.com/FzrRP1SrbU
— Labour Press (@labourpress) January 29, 2026
And this is from the main Labour account.
Goodwin in 2025:⠀⠀⠀⠀Goodwin in 2026:
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) January 29, 2026
Home of free speech!⠀⠀Don’t be mean to me :( pic.twitter.com/8wEQBBCdoG
Manchester, reject this fraud.
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) January 29, 2026
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Unite criticises goverment as 'wrongheaded' as it waters down plan for workers to get full control of how tips allocated to staff
The Unite union has criticised the government for abandoning a proposal to ensure that, when tips are distributed to workers, staff get full control over who gets what.
The last government passed a law saying that tips should be passed on fully to workers. But employers were still able to decide which workers were included in the group getting a share of the money.
Labour promised to address this, and the rules have been changed in the Employment Rights Act. But, while Labour originally promised that workers would get full control of tip allocation, that pledge has been watered down.
As Tom Belger revealed in a story for LabourList, the government diclosed the shift in a Q&A in a policy paper explaining how the new law will work. It says:
Under the headline “Why are you not handing full control of tip allocation to workers, as you pledged?”, the document says:
Employers will be legally required to consult with their workers when developing their policy on tipping. This must represent a genuine consultation – not simply a paper exercise – something which will be ensured by the new right for workers to view a summary of the views expressed within it.
Direct worker control of the tipping distribution, without the guardrails of consultation and accompanying statutory and non-statutory guidance, could risk certain groups of workers being disadvantaged by a ‘tyranny of the majority’ or even indirect discrimination against workers with certain protected characteristics, while such an approach could also be impractical to enforce.
Commenting on the change, Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary (whose first job was as a waitress), said:
The government’s fact sheet is wrongheaded and offensive to hospitality workers, it needs to be withdrawn and redrafted.
Using language such “the tyranny of majority” of workers, totally fails to appreciate the employment conditions of hospitality workers. The dangers of discrimination and unfairness will come from imposing a tips policy without the workers’ voice.
The suggestion that vulnerable workers would be disadvantaged by a workers’ tips policy is simply insulting. Many workers in front of house positions are low paid, young, women and migrant workers.
Yesterday a reader asked if More in Common took into account that, by the next election, the voting age will have been reduced from 18 to 16 (assuming the government legislation goes through) when it produces its seat forecasts from its MRP polls. The answer came back, no.
The latest More in Common MRP poll suggests Reform UK is on course to win a majority of more than 100. It is projecting Reform on 381 seats, Labour 85, Conservatives 70, SNP 40, Lib Dems 35 and the Greens 9.
Prompted by the question, More in Common’s Jake Dibden crunched the numbers to see what might happen to these figures if they included 16 and 17-year-olds voting. He says the results would be different in eight seats, the numbers suggest. He says:
The last round of census data suggested there were only about ~1.5 million 16-17 year olds living in the UK. Of course those people were already of age to vote by the time of the 2024 election, but assuming the number is not too far off for current 12-13 year olds and given average turnout rates (and we know younger people tend to vote at lower rates than average), the reform would only be adding around ~800-900,000 active voters to the electorate (compared to the ~28 million that voted in 2024).
Given that these voting intention of these would be voters is likely to be divided between many parties (as in the country as a whole) any given party may only obtain an advantage of a couple of hundred votes on average in each constituency.
Here is the list of the eight seats where, on the basis of these projections, votes at 16 would change the result. Overall, Labour and the Greens would gain two seats each, the Tories would lose two seats, and Reform UK and the SNP would both end up one seat down.
Updated
Back to China, and the UK has agreed a tariff reduction deal for Scotch whisky, Gina Davidson, LBC’s Scottish political editor, reports.
BREAKING: UK govt has signed a new tariff deal for whisky with China - Scotland’s 10th largest market for the amber nectar by value. It will see tariffs halve - from 10% to 5% Believed to be worth £250m over 5 years for exporters
MoJ no longer expecting prisons to run out of places due to Sentencing Act reforms, MPs told
Ministers are no longer forecasting a chronic shortage of prison places – but the “margin for error is slim”, MPs have been told.
Jake Richards, a justice minister, said the figures in the lastest annual statement on prison capacity showed that government decisions to reduce prison overcrowding were having an impact.
He told MPs:
The figures today do show that without the action this government took, opposed every step of the way by the Conservatives and Reform, our law and order system today would be in crisis – criminals allowed to roam the streets, victims failed.
For the first time in a very long time, we are no longer forecasting a chronic deficit of prison places.
When the impact of this government’s landmark sentencing reforms is taken into account, supply is now expected to keep pace with demand in our central projected scenario.
This is real progress but let me be absolutely clear, this is not the time for complacency. The system remains under considerable pressure. The margin for error is slim and the work to stabilise it is far from finished.
This chart shows what the forecast is for the number of prison places available up to 2032 (the orange line), the number of people likely to be in prison needing those places (the thick blue line) and the number of prisoners there would have been without the Sentencing Act reforms (the dotted blue line).
Reform UK urged to suspend council byelection candidate accused of antisemitic and xenophobic comments
Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.
Nigel Farage is facing calls to suspend a Reform UK candidate in an upcoming council byelection who has been accused of making xenophobic and anti semitic comments.
Mike Manning, who is running to join Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, has been accused of making the comments on X as recently as November.
“Jews, Muslims.. There is something about circumcision that goes to their heads,” an verified X account in his name tweeted last year.
Other offensive tweets by the same account included a reference to Jizya, a poll tax levied on non-Muslims in exchange for protection.
“We already pay the Jizya tax, it’s called universal credits. They are all on it,” the account tweeted.
The controversy comes after the Reform UK leader of Staffordshire county council, Ian Cooper, was removed from the party last month after being accused of making racist comments on social media.
The Liberal Democrats’ deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, has written to the Reform leader to call for Manning’s suspension, accusing the candidate of directing “sickening insults at Jewish and Muslim communities.”
Asked if Manning, a former soldier who later worked in IT, had been suspended, a Reform spokesperson said that a disciplinary investigation has been opened.
Manning is standing in a 19 February byelection for the Zetland ward of Redcar and Cleveland borough council, where no party has overall control but where Labour is the largest.
No 10 says PM still committed to welfare reform - but does not deny report saying king's speech won't contain any benefits bill
Downing Street has said that Keir Starmer remains committed to welfare reform – despite the Times reporting that a welfare reform bill won’t feature in the king’s speech in May.
Asked about the report at the No 10 lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said:
Final decisions on the contents of the king’s speech haven’t been taken yet, but we are getting on with fixing the broken welfare system we inherited in order to get Britain working.
That includes reforms to Motability and universal credit, and launching the youth guarantee.
We’ve also commissioned Alan Milburn to look at how we can tackle the number of young people out of work to address the root causes that hold people back, and launched the Timms review co-produced with disabled people and their representative organisations to make sure Pip [the personal independence payment] is fit and fair for the future, and we’ll set out any further legislative plans in due course.
Given that the Timms review into Pip is not due to report until the autumn, ministers were not expected to be producing legislation relating to that this spring. But, as Max Kendix points out in his Times story, there are other welfare reform plans due to be implemented, including a proposed new “unemployment insurance”, a beefed-up, contributory, time-limited unemployment benefit.
In his story, Kendix says:
Government sources stressed that discussion about legislation was still continuing, and that even if welfare reform was not included in the king’s speech a bill could still be introduced at a later date in the session.
One minister said: “Clearly any welfare reform is going to be very difficult with the back benches, and the closer you get to a general election the less you want to do the difficult stuff. We’ve got to remember that largely the public wants to see welfare reform, and we do need to show delivery on that. This is not showing that reform is a priority.”
Farage attack on high street Turkish barber shops is dog-whistle racism, minister says
Nigel Farage’s attack on Turkish barber shops amounts to dog-whistle racism without a credible plan to fix struggling high streets across the country, Miatta Fahnbulleh, the devolution, faith and communities minister, has said. Richard Partington has the story.
UK citizens to get visa-free travel to China after Starmer talks with Xi
Keir Starmer has secured a deal on visa-free travel to China for UK citizens during his visit to Beijing, PA Media reports. PA says:
Those visiting the country for less than 30 days will no longer need a visa under the agreement, Downing Street has announced.
It will apply to those travelling to China for business and as tourists and brings the rules for UK visitors in line with those from 50 other countries including France and Germany.
The change will not come into effect immediately, but Beijing is understood to have committed to unilateral visa-free entry for UK citizens with a start date to be confirmed.
British passport-holders currently need a visa to enter mainland China.
Starmer said: “As one of the world’s economic powerhouses, businesses have been crying out for ways to grow their footprints in China.
“We’ll make it easier for them to do so, including via relaxed visa rules for short-term travel, supporting them to expand abroad, all while boosting growth and jobs at home.”
What McFadden told MPs to explain why Waspi women not getting compensation
This is what Pat McFadden told MPs about why he had decided to stick to the decision not to pay compensation to the Waspi women.
We agree with the ombudsman that women did not suffer any direct financial loss from the delay [in letters being sent out about the state pension age rising]. However, the question is about the impact of the delay in sending these letters.
The evidence taken as a whole, including from 2007, suggests the majority of 1950s born women would not have read and recalled the contents of an unsolicited pensions letter, even if it had been sent earlier.
Furthermore, the evidence also suggests that those less knowledgable about pensions, the very women who most needed to engage with a letter, and where it might have made a difference, were the least likely to read it.
So an earlier letter would have been unlikely to make a difference to what the majority of women knew about their own state pension age.
Indeed, the 2007 report concluded automatic pension forecast letters only had a negligible impact on pension knowledge and planning, and the department stopped sending them.
The evidence shows that the vast majority of 1950s born women already knew the state pension age was increasing thanks to a wide range of public information, including through leaflets, education campaigns, information in GP surgeries on TV, radio, cinema and online.
To specifically compensate only those women who suffered injustice would require a scheme that could reliably verify the individual circumstances of millions of women. That includes whether someone genuinely didn’t know their state pension age was changing, and whether they would have read and remembered a letter from many years ago and acted differently. It would not be practical to set up a compensation scheme to assess conclusive the answers to these questions.
As for a flat rate scheme, that would cost up to £10.3bn and would simply not be right or fair given it would be paid to the vast majority who were aware of the changes.
I’ve heard calls for compensation aimed at lower income pensioners, and we have focused in the last 12 months on raising pension credit uptake.
But in the context of this decision, a scheme focused on any single income group still doesn’t specify who may or may not have suffered injustice.
Responding to Garnier, McFadden says there is no change to government policy on the triple lock. He says he was just quoting OBR figures in his statement.
Tories say, if Labour believed Waspi women suffered injustice, it would have found money to compensate them
Mark Garnier, a shadow Treasury minister, is responding on behalf of the Tories.
He says, like many MPs, he has been contacted by many women about this.
He says when Labour were in opposition they did promise compensation.
And if they really believed that the women had suffered an injustice, they could have found the money, he says. He claims the government has found £35bn for the Chagos Islands deal.
He says McFadden implied that the Tories were at fault. But the maladministration happened when Labour were in office, he said.
He says, in his statement, McFadden said that the triple lock would mean pension incomes rising by up to £2,100 by the end of this parliament. He says that implies there is a cap on the triple lock, and he asks if that is correct.
McFadden tells MPs review of Waspi women case has not led to rethink of decision not to pay compensation
McFadden says the review has concluded.
He says the compensation decision was reviewed in the light of information that come to light, as part of a process triggered by a legal challenge.
He says the compensation decision was not about the rights or wrongs of raising the state pension age for women; it was about the fairness of how that decision was communciated.
The ombudsman recommended compensation. The previous government did nothing, he says.
He says Liz Kendall, his predecessor, decided not to pay compensation.
He says the government accepts that letters ahout the state pension age rising should have been sent earlier. He says the government has apologised for that.
But he says the evidence suggests that, because many people ignore those letters, if the letters had been sent earlier that would have made very little difference to what women knew.
He says other advertising campaigns had more impact.
He says a compensation scheme that only targeted people who did not get letters on time would not be practical to set up.
And a flat-rate compensation scheme would cost up to £10bn, he says.
He says he has considered the case for just compensate poorer pensions. But it would still not be possible to easily decide which women were and were not affected by the letters being sent out late.
So, he says, he has decided to stick with the original decision not to pay compensation.
Pat McFadden is making the statement about Waspi women now. (See 11.28pm.)
Burnham said he wanted to be MP again to fight Reform UK because its divisive politics pose threat to Manchester
Andy Burnham told BBC Radio Manchester in his phone-in this morning that he was not applying to be a byelection candidate because he wanted to “undermine” Keir Starmer by returning to the Commons.
He said:
I want this to be known as well: I spoke to senior people in the party, including the home secretary. We had a really great conversation.
And I did ask to speak to the prime minister, because I wanted to assure him of something I put in the letter that supported my application, and it was that I wasn’t coming in to undermine him or the government.
I was coming in to see if I could contribute, because some of the things I know are holding Greater Manchester back are problems at that level.
During the phone-in, Burnham was asked why he wanted to step down as mayor of Greater Manchester now when in 2024, when he was elected to the post for the third time, he indicated he would serve a full term.
Burnham said that he thought the rise of Reform UK was a threat to what he had achieved as mayor, and he wanted to be in parliament to fight back against them. He explained
What we’ve built here in Greater Manchester is truly, truly special. It’s based on a partnership between people, between our councils, actually between the political parties, between us and the private sector, the voluntary sector, the faith community. That is what has been built in Greater Manchester.
And in my view, the politics of Reform threaten that, they put it at risk, because it’s all about pitting people against each other and causing division.
And in the end, in wanting to consolidate everything we built here in Greater Manchester over generations, that was a persuasive factor in me putting my name forward.
UPDATE: Burnham also said:
I believed I was probably in a better position than anybody to fight back against [Reform UK] and that’s why I put myself forward to them …
If I’d have won it I think we could have pushed them back. I think Reform can be pushed back because they’ve brought in all these Tories. They look like the worst of the Tory party to me and I think we could have beaten them and beaten them well, and that would have pushed them right back.
Updated
Two 'good local candidates' shortlisted to be Labour's candidate in Gorton and Denton, Lucy Powell says
Hannah Al-Othman is the Guardian’s North of England correspondent.
Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader, has said the party’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection will be one of “two good local candidates who will be outstanding members of parliament for this area”.
The final two on Labour’s shortlist are Manchester councillor Angeliki Stogia, and Eamon O’Brien, who leads Bury Council in Greater Manchester. Members are due to choose the candidate after a hustings, with the result expected on Saturday afternoon.
Powell said:
I think people here … want someone who’s going to get on with the day job of getting the potholes fitted, getting people the support they need as their MP, standing up for them in parliament week in, week out, and that’s what the job is as well.
While Powell had supported Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s failed candidacy, she said:
Whoever we select, Angeliki or Eamon, they will have Andy’s full support and he’s going to be out putting the shoulder to the wheel alongside me, with everybody else, in doing whatever he can to help make clear to people that actually voting for the Greens or any other party risks letting Reform into our area.
Pat McFadden to make statement to MPs about Waspi women
There are two statements in the Commons today. Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, will give one soon on pensions, and then, at about 12.30pm, Jake Richards, a justice minister, will give one on prison capacity.
McFadden is expected to update MPs on the outcome of the decision to review the government’s decision not to compensate the so-called Waspi women. These are the women born in the 1950s are said to have lost out because of government failings in the way changes to the state pension age were publicised, prompting the Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign to launch in 2015.
McFadden said in November that, even though the government had ruled out compensation, new documentation about the case had come to light that meant the decision should be reviewed. At the time government sources played down the prospect that this would lead to a rethink on compensation.
Updated
Burnham claims Labour figures 'lied' about him to media after he was blocked as byelection candidate
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has accused unnamed figures in the Labour party of lying about him after he was blocked from being a byelection candidate.
In an phone-in on BBC Radio Manchester this morning, Burnham for the first time spoke in public in detail about Labour’s decision to block him standing as the party’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection.
Burnham said that he accepted the party’s decision. But he said the incident had exposed a culture were some figures (advisers, he was implying) “think they can just lie”.
Burnham said that he was right to say the Labour party told the media on Sunday that he was being blocked as a candidate before they told him. He also said that when the party denied this, it was not telling the truth and “I can disprove that”.
He also referred to a briefing given to ITV’s Robert Peston, who reported on Tuesday that he had been told by a “source close to the PM” that Burnham was told in advance that he would be rejected if he applied to be a candidate, and that, in the light of this warning, submitting an application would be viewed as an “explicit attempt to destabilise Starmer”. Burnham said that was untrue, and he was never given that warning.
Burnham said he was not blaming “anybody at the top of the government, and certainly not the prime minister” for these false briefings. He said he had had a good conversation with Starmer on Monday about this.
But he said this episode had exposed “a culture than needs to be confronted”.
He went on:
That is this culture where, in the aftermath, people behind their hand to journalsts think they can just lie, basically …
There are always in politics – I saw it around Tony Blair, I saw it around Gordon Brown, I saw it around the Conservative prime ministers from the 2010s onwards – where some people just think they can say what they like to the media.
And why do they do it? You’re asking me; They do it to denigrate the character, impugn the integrity of elected politicians.
They did it to Wes Streeting not so long ago, and it’s almost like the stock in trade of Westminster.
But the thing I would want to get over today, and I give great credit to the prime minister for backing the Hillsborough Law that I brought to parliament, and obviously that brings in a duty of candour on public servants.
Some of these people are paid by the public purse, but in my view, anybody paid by the public purse does not get license to lie, and in the aftermath of all of this, I’m not going to be bitter, and I’m going to be out there campaigning in the byelection, but I am going to call that one thing out.
In its readout after the meeting between Keir Starmer and Xi Jinping, the Chinese government said it would “actively consider” visa-free travel to China for UK citizens. Starmer himself said “good progress” had been made on the issue.
Downing Street is now confirming something firmer. PA Media has just snapped this.
Keir Starmer has secured a deal on visa-free travel to China for UK citizens during his visit to Beijing, Downing Street has announced.
Updated
Keir Starmer has given Xi Jinping a football used during last weekend’s Premier League fixture between Manchester United and Arsenal, PA Media reports. PA says:
The prime minister is a keen Arsenal fan, while the Chinese president is reportedly an avid supporter of Manchester United, who won Sunday’s match 3-2.
Starmer brought the ball from the game to give to Xi as a gift when they met in Beijing on Thursday.
Xi referenced four UK football teams during their meeting – Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Crystal Palace.
During a state visit to the UK in 2015, then-prime minister David Cameron took Xi to visit the training ground of Manchester City.
This is from Mark Urban, the broadcaster, writer and former Newsnight diplomatic editor, on Keir Starmer’s meeting with Xi Jinping.
Note to correspondents covering Starmer in China: taking loads of business people with you has been a feature of British diplomacy there since Lord Macartney’s mission of 1793. The outcome is always the same - there’s much they want to sell us, not much they want to buy
And Urban has illustrated his tweet with this image.
Updated
Keir Starmer has posted this clip on his TikTok account. It seems he has some way to go with learning Chinese.
On X, he has posted a more conventional message.
Growth at home is directly linked to our engagement with the world’s biggest powers.
Today I met with President Xi in Beijing. We affirmed our shared commitment to building a long-term and strategic partnership that will benefit both our countries, while maintaining frank and open dialogue on areas of disagreement.
As Prime Minister, I will always deliver in the interest of the British people.
This is what the Chinese foriegn ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told journalists today about Xi Jinping’s meeting with Keir Starmer at the ministry’s regular briefing.
This morning, President Xi Jinping had a successful meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The two leaders agreed that China and the UK need to develop a long-term and consistent comprehensive strategic partnership. This reflects the two sides’ new vision on bilateral ties and provides sound and stable expectation for cooperation in various sectors between China and the UK.
At the start of his meeting with Keir Starmer, Li Qiang, the Chinese premier, said the people of the UK and China wanted “open cooperation” between their countries.
Li told Starmer that his efforts to improve relations had been “widely welcomed” in both countries.
He said this showed that “open cooperation and mutual benefit is what the people want. It also serves the shared interests of us both”.
He added: “The more we are in a changing world, the more valuable such stability is.”
And Starmer said he wanted “to find ways to work together in a manner which is fit for these times”. He added:
This means being more open and frank, to deal directly with difficulties, and it also means recognising and respecting modern China in all its vastness and complexity, for everything it has achieved and as a power whose fortunes directly affect the United Kingdom.
Updated
PA Media has more on Keir Starmer’s meeting with Li Qiang, the Chinese premier.
Keir Starmer received a ceremonial welcome at Beijing’s Great Hall Of The People ahead of his meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang.
A military band played God Save The King and the Chinese national anthem, March Of The Volunteers before the two men inspected an honour guard of around 140 troops from the Chinese army, navy and air force.
Updated
This is what Downing Street said about Keir Starmer’s meeting with Xi Jinping. A No 10 spokesperson said:
The prime minister thanked the president for a warm welcome to China, and both leaders affirmed their shared commitment to building a consistent, long-term, and strategic partnership that will benefit both countries.
They agreed they would continue to enhance cooperation on areas of mutual interest, while maintaining frank and open dialogue on areas of disagreement.
The prime minister raised areas of concern to the United Kingdom.
Accompanied by a delegation of nearly 60 of Britain’s biggest businesses and cultural organisations on his visit, the prime minister added that he hoped new partnerships could be forged and new opportunities unlocked for them in China.
Growth and prosperity at home is directly linked to our engagement with the world’s biggest powers abroad, the prime minister added.
Here are more pictures of the welcome ceremony for Keir Starmer at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing ahead of his meeting with with the Chinese premier, Li Qiang.
Updated
Xi tells Starmer 'twists and turns' in China-UK relations over recent years have not helped either country
Pippa Crerar, the Guardian’s political editor, is in Beijing with the press pack accompanying Keir Starmer. Here is here report on the PM’s meeting with Xi Jinping.
And here is an extract.
In opening remarks before their talks, Xi told Starmer: “Your visit this time has drawn a lot of attention. Sometimes good things take time.
“As long as it is the right thing that serves the fundamental interests of the country and the people, then as leaders we should not shy away from difficulties and we should press ahead.
“As long as we take a broad perspective, rise above differences and respect each other, then we will prove ourselves able to stand the test of history,” he added.
The president quoted a Chinese proverb: “Range far your eye over long distances.”
But Xi did acknowledge that the UK-China relationship had seen “twists and turns” over the years that he said served the interests of neither country.
By “twists and turns”, Xi was referring to the way, when the Conservatives were in power, the UK went from actively trying to court China, when David Cameron was PM, to treating it as a threat, and removing Huawei technology from the 5G network, under Boris Johnson and his successors. Starmer has described this as veering “from golden age to ice age”, and argued it was a mistake.
After his meeting with Xi Jinping, Keir Starmer had a tour of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
According to PA Media, a Chinese readout of the meeting between Keir Starmer and Xi Jinping stressed that China will not “pose a threat” to other countries.
Setting out what Starmer raised in the meeting, it states that the UK’s policy on Taiwan “remains unchanged and will not change”.
Here are some more pictures from Keir Starmer’s meeting with Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Starmer and Xi agree deal to restrict supply of Chinese-made small boat equipment for use by people smugglers, No 10 says
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, picking up from Siraj Datoo.
Overnight the UK government has announced more details of the deal that Keir Starmer and Xi Jinping discussed intended to stop the supply of small boats from China to Europe for use by people smugglers.
The government says:
The new deal … will for the first time enable joint UK-Chinese law enforcement action before boats and engines ever reach criminal networks in Europe.
Last year more than 60% of all engines used by smuggling gangs were found to be branded as Chinese manufactured engines. Inflatable dinghies used in small boat crossings, often made using parts sourced in China, have been enabling gangs to pack ever larger numbers onto single vessels, with recent crossings carrying over 100 people in increasingly life-threatening conditions.
Under the agreement, UK law enforcement agencies will work with Chinese authorities to prevent small boat engines and equipment used in Channel crossings getting into the hands of criminal gangs. This includes intelligence sharing to identify smugglers’ supply routes and direct engagement with Chinese manufacturers to prevent legitimate businesses being exploited by organised crime.
The deal reflects the government’s commitment to active, hard-headed engagement with the world’s major powers to deliver for working people at home.
Starmer says he made 'good progress' on whisky tariffs and visa-free travel to China during talks with Xi
“We made some really good progress on tariffs for whisky, on visa-free travel to China, and on information exchange cooperation on irregular migration,” Starmer told reporters in Beijing after an 80-minute summit with the Chinese leader.
The pair discussed how much whisky tariffs would be reduced and over what timeframe, as well as discussing information on the small boats used in irregular migration into Britain as part of a greater strategic focus on security and defence.
Starmer also said the move to lower whisky tariffs was an example of how he wanted “a much wider opening” for British businesses in China, part of the aim of his trip as he seeks to inject growth into the UK’s sluggish economy.
In its own statement after the meeting, China said it would “actively consider” visa-free travel for UK citizens.
Updated
Here’s a picture from inside that summit earlier. If you look closely enough you can spot Starmer (fifth-right) and Xi (sixth left).
Starmer says he discussed Jimmy Lai is talks with Xi
Starmer also said he brought up the case of Jimmy Lai, a former Hong Kong media tycoon and British citizen who was convicted in December of national security crimes.
When pressed about how forcefully he raised issues including the jailing of the pro-democracy campaigner, in addition to the treatment of the Uighur minority, the prime minister said:
We raised those issues, as you would expect.
Part of the rationale for engagement is to make sure that we can both seize the opportunities that are available, which is what we’ve done, but also have a mature discussion about issues that we disagree on.
He noted they had a “respectful discussion” and that was “part and parcel of the reason to engage”.
Updated
Starmer says there has been 'real strengthening' in China-UK relations
We’ve now got some lines from Keir Starmer. Speaking after his meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, he said the pair made progress on a number of areas, including tariffs and visa-free travel.
He said:
We had a very good, productive session with real, concrete outcomes and it was a real strengthening of the relationship and that’s in the national interest, because, of course, there are huge opportunities here in China as the second biggest economy in the world, and that’s why we’ve got such a big business delegation.
A lot of discussion was about how we open up access for those opportunities, focusing - as I always do - on how is this going to be delivered back in the United Kingdom? How does it benefit people back at home?
And we made some really good progress on tariffs for whisky, on visa-free travel to China and on information exchange and co-operation on irregular migration, focusing particularly on small boats and engine parts. So a very good, constructive meeting with real outcomes, and that’s very much in our national interest.
UPDATE: Here is the clip of Starmer speaking.
"We made some really good progress"
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 29, 2026
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been speaking after he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping ⬇️
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Updated
It’s 3pm in Beijing and if you’re just joining us here’s a recap of the latest after Keir Starmer held talks with Xi Jinping in Beijing during the first visit to China by a British prime minister in eight years.
Starmer told Xi that he wanted to build a “sophisticated relationship” with China to boost growth and security, signalling a reset after years of strained ties.
The British prime minister held an 80-minute summit with the Chinese leader at the Great Hall of the People before they lunched together on Thursday – the most important day of Starmer’s four-day visit to China.
Starmer told Xi at the start of their meeting: “China is a vital player on the global stage, and it’s vital that we build a more sophisticated relationship where we can identify opportunities to collaborate, but of course also allow a meaningful dialogue on areas where we disagree.”
Xi said ties with Britain had gone through “twists and turns” that did not serve the interests of either country but that a more “consistent” approach was in both their interests and China stood ready to develop a long-term strategic partnership. “We can deliver a result that can withstand the test of history,” the Chinese leader said, flanked by his top ministers.
Xi also appeared to reprimand Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, who has criticised Starmer for travelling to China this week.
There has been cross-party concern about China’s spying activities in the UK – with the travelling No 10 delegation operating on burner phones – and also Beijing’s human rights abuses. But Starmer began the trip by saying he wanted to bring “stability and clarity” to the bilateral relationship after years of “inconsistency” under the Tories when it went from “golden age to ice age”.
Starmer is the latest western leader to engage in a flurry of diplomacy with China as nations hedge against unpredictability from the US under Donald Trump.
With Guardian staff and agencies
Updated
More now on Downing Street saying earlier that Starmer and Xi would announce in Beijing that the UK and China would jointly combat gangs involved in trafficking illegal migrants.
The deal is to focus on reducing the use of Chinese-made engines for small boats that transport people across Europe to claim asylum, Reuters reports.
Downing Street said British and Chinese officials would share intelligence to identify smugglers’ supply routes and work with Chinese manufacturers to prevent legitimate businesses from being exploited by organised crime.
Updated
Xi Jinping said after his meeting with Keir Starmer that mutual trust was the bedrock for enduring relations and that China and Britain should expand cooperation in areas including education and healthcare, Reuters has just reported.
Updated
On the eve of Starmer’s visit to Beijing he spoke with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the British PM is expected to seek Xi’s support in bringing an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
Xi said as he met Starmer today that the state of the world was “turbulent and fluid” and that more dialogue between the UK and China was “imperative”, whether it was “for the sake of world peace and stability or for our two countries’ economies and peoples”, Pippa Crerar reports.
In response, Starmer told Xi he wanted a “more sophisticated” relationship between the two countries, saying: “China is a vital player on the global stage and it is vital that we build a more sophisticated relationship.”
Updated
Xi Jinping has said the UK’s relationship with his country has gone through “twists and turns” over the years but that a more “consistent” approach is in both their interests, Pippa Crerar is reporting from Beijing.
Ahead of the talks with Keir Starmer during the first visit to China by a British prime minister in eight years, Xi said the two men would “stand the test of history” if they could “rise above differences”, the Guardian’s political editor writes in her latest full report.
At the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Xi also appeared to reprimand Kemi Badenoch, the British Conservative leader, who has criticised Starmer for travelling to China this week.
There has been cross-party concern about China’s spying activities in the UK – with the travelling No 10 delegation operating on burner phones – and also Beijing’s human rights abuses.
However, the UK prime minister began the trip by saying he wanted to bring “stability and clarity” to the bilateral relationship after years of “inconsistency” under the Tories when it went from “golden age to ice age”.
You can read the full report here:
Updated
For more context on today’s Starmer-Xi meeting, China is the world’s second-biggest economy and Britain’s third-largest trading partner – to which it exports £45bn of goods and services a year – so it is no surprise the UK has turned to Beijing in its search for economic reliability.
As the Guardian’s political editor Pippa Crerar reported earlier today, the UK does not rank among the top 10 of China’s trading partners but the Beijing leadership has spied a political opportunity to improve links with one of Washington’s closest allies at a time of deep uncertainty in the transatlantic alliance.
Starmer has insisted he is “clear-eyed” about the threat China poses to the UK’s national security, with Downing Street saying he would have “guardrails” in place to protect against espionage.
The agenda for the much of Starmer’s talks is to focus on how to balance the need for commercial and diplomatic engagement with China while limiting its direct influence over UK infrastructure, as well as maintaining pressure on human rights, including the Uyghur population of Xinjiang and people in Hong Kong.
Updated
Keir Starmer and Xi Jinping spoke privately for an hour and 20 minutes – nearly double the allocated time for their meeting.
The two were also due to have lunch together afterwards.
It’s now 1.01pm in Beijing.
Updated
Returning to Starmer’s comments to Xi, the British PM called for a deeper relationship with China during what he described as “challenging times for the world”.
He told the Chinese leader that their countries needed to work together on global stability, climate change and other issues.
“I have long been clear that the UK and China need a long term, consistent and comprehensive strategic partnership,” Starmer said, quoted by the AP.
Updated
Starmer-Xi meeting ends
The meeting between Keir Starmer and Xi Jinping has ended, Downing Street has confirmed.
Updated
Starmer seeks 'positive way to work together' with China
Before his meeting with Xi Jinping meeting today, Keir Starmer was welcomed by National People’s Congress chairman Zhao Leji at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
A report from the pool of journalists travelling with the British prime minister quotes Zhao as saying it was “significant” to develop the UK-China relationship “well” amid the “changing and turbulent international landscape”.
He also praised Starmer’s efforts to reach a rapprochement with China, saying relations were now on “the correct track to improvement and development” and “positive progress has been made.”
Starmer said:
This is a historic visit, the first by a British prime minister in eight years. We have made this trip because I believe it is strongly in our common interest to find positive ways to work together, and that has been our long-standing position.
The PM finished by saying:
I look forward to a very productive few days discussing issues of global stability and security, growth and shared challenges like climate change.
Updated
There have been reports the Starmer-Xi meeting is still going after more than an hour, following earlier reports it was scheduled for 40 minutes.
State news agency Xinhua reported that their talks were expected to cover trade ties, national security and human rights.
The meeting in the Great Hall of the People comes on the most important day of Starmer’s four-day visit to China – the first by a British PM since 2018.
Starmer told journalists earlier on his flight to Beijing that he wanted to bring “stability and clarity” to the bilateral relationship after years of “inconsistency” under the Tories when it went from “golden age to ice age”.
In other developments:
The British PM is also due to hold meetings with premier Li Qiang and China’s top legislator, Zhao Leji, on Thursday.
Starmer’s trip comes amid tension between the UK and longtime close ally the US over President Donald Trump’s recent remarks including threats to take control of Greenland and blasting what he called UK “stupidity” over its decision to cede the Chagos Islands.
European and other western countries have engaged in a flurry of diplomacy with China as they hedge against US unpredictability, with Starmer’s visit immediately following one from Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, who signed an economic deal with Beijing to take down trade barriers, angering Trump.
China indicated it was also eager to mend ties with the UK, portraying the relationship with Britain as being at a “pivotal moment”.
Starmer told a delegation of business leaders hours after arriving in China on Wednesday that it was time for a “mature” relationship between Britain and the world’s second-biggest economy.
Downing Street said Starmer and Xi would announce that Britain and China would work together to tackle the gangs involved in trafficking illegal migrants, in a sign of how the countries could work together.
Starmer was asked en route to China if he would bring up the case of Jimmy Lai and said that he would “raise the issues that need to be raised” on human rights with Xi. Lai, a former Hong Kong media tycoon and British citizen, was convicted in December of national security crimes.
Updated
Some images from the meeting between the two leaders are dropping:
Xi says Labour governments have made 'important contributions' to growth of China-UK relations
More from Xi Jinping here as he met Keir Starmer: the Chinese leader said the UK-China relationship in recent years had seen “twists and turns that did not serve the interests of our countries”.
Describing the state of the world as “turbulent and fluid”, Xi said more dialogue between the UK and China was “imperative”, whether it was “for the sake of world peace and stability or for our two countries’ economies and peoples”, PA Media is reporting.
Xi said:
In the past, Labour governments made important contributions to the growth of China-UK relations.
China stands ready to develop with the UK a long-term and consistent strategic partnership. It will benefit our two peoples.
Updated
Xi says China and UK must 'strengthen' ties
Xi Jinping has told Keir Starmer their countries must “strengthen” ties to counter geopolitical headwinds.
The Chinese leader was quoting as saying at their Beijing meeting on Thursday:
The current international situation is complex and intertwined. As permanent members of the UN security council and major global economies, China and the UK need to strengthen dialogue and cooperation.
Updated
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the British PM’s trip to China. Keir Starmer has told Xi Jinping he wants a “more sophisticated” relationship with China.
Speaking from Beijing, Starmer told Xi it had been “too long” since a British prime minister visited the country.
“China is a vital player on the global stage and it is vital that we build a more sophisticated relationship,” he said.
The Guardian’s political editor Pippa Crerar is in Beijing covering the meeting and reports that Starmer also stressed the economic benefits of an improved relationship with China, saying:
It is with the British people in mind that I am here today. I made the promise 18 months ago when we were elected into government that I would make Britain face outwards again.
Because as we all know, events abroad affect everything that happens back in our home countries, to prices on the supermarket shelves to how secure we feel.
Starmer’s trip to Beijing comes as he undertakes talks he hopes will strengthen the UK’s economic relationship with China after years of acrimony and amid British uncertainty on whether the US is still a reliable partner.
We will bring you the latest developments in Beijing, live.
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