But he managed by a slim margin to scrap the amendment to the Trade Bill added by the House of Lords, winning a division by 319 to 308.<\/p>\n
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The move is awkward timing for the government, coming hours after outgoing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said China<\/strong>‘s treatment of Muslims and ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region constitutes genocide.<\/p>\n Despite the amendment being defeated, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith – one of the rebels – said he hoped peers would “ensure an improved amendment returns to the Commons”.<\/p>\n He added: “The willful ignorance of alleged genocide and grave human rights abuses in China and elsewhere must stop.<\/p>\n “We will not sell out our values for trade deals with genocidal states.”<\/p>\n Speaking in the Commons, Mr Duncan Smith added Uighurs and other victims of alleged genocide<\/strong> “have been denied justice for many many years” and face being pushed into slave labour and forced sterilisation.<\/p>\n “It’s quite clear to me – but I’m not able to say so – that this has all the hallmarks of a genocide.<\/p>\n “I’m not able to say so, because at the end of the day it’s for the courts to make that decision, it’s not for individual politicians to do so.”<\/p>\n Other senior Conservatives to rebel were former cabinet ministers David Davis and Damian Green.<\/p>\n Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the Commons’ Defence select Committee, explained why he was voting against the government, saying: “We are just crafting the definition of what global Britain means and this must be front and centre in what we stand for and what we believe.”<\/p>\n The amendment would have let the High Court decide a country that signed up to a trade deal with Britain had committed genocide under the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide – revoking the agreement.<\/p>\n During the debate, trade minister Greg Hands said he wanted “further discussions” with MPs on how to approach their concerns.<\/p>\n But he angered them by admitting he had not read a compromise amendment, which was tabled by Sir Iain and Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani and designed to avoid a rebellion by containing the thrust of proposals introduced by peers while easing government concerns.<\/p>\n Mr Hands said he will “have to have a look at the amendment” before Sir Iain replied that he had handed it to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and his team last Wednesday and added: “With respect, it’s not a case of will he have a look at it, he must have a view about it surely because it’s there.”<\/p>\n In the Commons last week, Mr Raab dismissed the amendment as “well-meaning” but also “rather ineffective and counter-productive”.<\/p>\n Analysis: Another showdown coming soon with potentially even more rebels During the big Commons vote on genocide and trade with China, the burly, ruddy-faced figure of Mark Spencer, the government chief whip, sat slumped in his corner seat on the front bench looking worried.<\/em><\/p>\n And well he might. When his deputy, the affable Stuart Andrew showed him a piece of paper with the result, it revealed that the government – with a hefty Commons majority of 80, don’t forget – had scraped home by just 11 votes.<\/em><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/20\/07\/768x432\/skynews-uighur-china-prisoners_5044529.jpg\")
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By Jon Craig, chief political correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n