BORIS Johnson has refused to call for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over China’s treatment of Uighurs.
The Prime Minister was urged in Parliament to take action in response to human rights abuses in the western Xinjiang province.
LibDem leader Ed Davey warned there is a "genocide happening in front of our eyes" and called on Team GB to be pulled out of the Winter Olympics, scheduled to be held next in year in China’s capital.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Davey said: "Today, millions of Uighur people in China live in fear under a cruel regime. The BBC, international media and human rights NGOs are all reporting on forced labour camps, women being raped and sterilised and families being separated. This is a genocide happening in front of our eyes.
"So does the Prime Minister agree with me that unless China ends this genocide Britain and Team GB should boycott the Winter Olympics in Beijing next year?"
READ MORE: Blackford compares treatment of Uighurs in China to Hitler’s treatment of Jews
Johnson refused to commit to such a move, despite condemning the “appalling campaign" against the Uighurs.
He replied: “[Davey] is absolutely right to highlight the appalling campaign against the Uighurs in Xinjiang and that's why the Foreign Secretary has set out the policies that he has, the package of measures to ensure that no British companies are complicit in or profiting from violations.
"We're leading international action in the UN to hold China to account and will continue to work with the US friends and partners around the world to do just that. He raises a point about a sporting boycott, we're not normally in favour of sporting boycotts in this country and that's been the long-standing position of this Government."
Yet authorities in Britain have supported several high-profile sporting boycotts in the past.
In 1980, the UK Government backed a boycott of the Olympics in Russia over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. However, Margaret Thatcher was powerless to stop individual athletes from competing, with several going on two win medals under the Olympic flag.
Ten years earlier, a South African cricket tour of England was cancelled at the request of home secretary James Callaghan amid fierce anti-apartheid campaigns.
The 1986 British Lions tour of South Africa was also abandoned as a protest against apartheid.
Earlier this month, Team GB chef de mission Georgie Harland said there is "no question" of Britain boycotting next year's Winter Olympics.
His remarks followed a coalition of 180 human rights groups urging a boycott over the Chinese government's reported complicity in human rights abuses.
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