Tory MP says he was deported from Djibouti due to criticisms of China

A former government minister who has had sanctions imposed on him by China has said he was detained and deported by Djibouti as a “direct consequence” of the east African country’s close ties with Beijing.

Tim Loughton, the Conservative MP for East Worthing and Shoreham since 1997, said he was held for more than seven hours at the airport earlier this month, barred entry to Djibouti, and told he was being removed on the next available flight.

Loughton, a veteran backbencher who served as deputy chairman on the home affairs select committee, arrived in Djibouti on 8 April for a 24-hour visit including meeting the British ambassador.

Djibouti has received billions of dollars of investment from the Chinese including a new stadium, hospital, a $1bn (£790m) space port and a free trade zone housing manufacturing and warehouse facilities.

A Chinese embassy spokesperson said the allegations were “purely baseless” and called them “fabricated and slanderous rhetoric that attempts to smear China and poison China-UK relations”.

They wrote: “We will continue to advocate for pragmatic policies that elevate democracy and human rights around the world while increasingly reducing Britain’s economic dependence on volatile autocratic regimes.