Iain Duncan Smith has called for Britain to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

The Chingford and Woodford Green MP has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese Government, especially in regard to its treatment of Uyghur muslims.

Speaking on LBC Radio, Mr Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Conservative party, said: “I think that the Government should boycott the Olympics.

“Given the nature of all that is going, the appalling behaviour of China across a whole range of issues, sadly it’s not just what I believe to be the genocide of the Uyghurs.

"It’s also the fact they have got half a million Tibetans in forced labour camps, and they have been attacking Christians, killed some Indian soldiers on their border the other day and have taken over south China sees and are now beginning to decree those from inner Mongoloia, which is part of China, cannot speak their own language and of course Hong Kong, where they just simply decided to trash their agreement with us.”

The Winter Olympics is scheduled to take place from February 4 – 20, 2022, in the Chinese capital.

In response, the editor-in-chief of state-backed Chinese tabloid Global Times, took to twitter to warn China would response to any nation which pulls out with ‘serious sanctions’.

“Boycotting 2022 Beijing Winter Games, an unpopular idea, won’t receive wide support,” Hu Xijin said.

“IOC and athletes will both oppose it, and China will seriously sanction any country that follows such a call.”

“I have asked for the Government to boycott it”, said Mr Duncan Smith. “I think it’s up to individual athletes from that point onwards, for them to make that decision, I fully understand that many of them have sacrificed a lot over the last few years to get t the Olympics.

“So my view, is that the Government should boycott it and we shouldn’t have any official representation… and we should say to athletes it is up to them if they believe, as we do, that there is a problem here with china, then they can of course make that a point and step away.”