Foreign secretary David Lammy said he was deeply concerned after a British politician was denied entry to Hong Kong, and that he would urgently raise the issue with Chinese authorities.
Wera Hobhouse was denied entry to Hong Kong on Thursday for a personal trip to visit her son, who has lived there since 2019, and new grandson.
She said she was the first British MP to be refused entry on arrival in Hong Kong since the former British colony was handed over to China in 1997. She described the decision as “cruel” and “an insult to all parliamentarians”.
She told the Sunday Times: “My son was waiting at the other end at arrivals. I couldn’t even see him and give him a hug and I hadn’t seen him in a year.”
The Liberal Democrat is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), which monitors and scrutinises Beijing. She said she had been given no explanation for the refusal.
Lammy said on Sunday: “It is deeply concerning to hear that an MP on a personal trip has been refused entry to Hong Kong.
“We will urgently raise this with the authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing to demand an explanation.”
Lammy added: “As I made clear earlier this week, it would be unacceptable for an MP to be denied entry for simply expressing their views as a Parliamentarian. Unjustified restrictions on freedom of movement can only serve to further undermine Hong Kong’s international reputation.”
The Sunday Times reported that Hobhouse had her passport confiscated, was asked about her job and the purpose of her visit, had her luggage searched and was then taken to the boarding gate. “When I was given the decision my voice was shaking and I was just saying: ‘Why, please explain to me?’,” it quoted her as saying.
Her parliamentary colleagues expressed outrage at the decision, with Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey saying it was “heartless” and “totally unacceptable”.
In a statement, the Ipac said Hobhouse’s exclusion “appears linked to her criticism of Beijing’s human rights record, and possibly her membership of this network” and described it as an “affront to democratic principles and personal freedoms”.
In addition to being a member of Ipac, Hobhouse has previously spoken out against the Chinese government’s abuse of human rights in Tibet and crackdown on freedom of speech in Hong Kong.
China has previously banned several British MPs from entering the country, including Ipac members Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Nusrat Ghani, and former security minister Tom Tugendhat.
A week earlier, Lammy criticised the Israeli government for refusing to allow Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang to enter the country due to comments they had made about the conflict in Gaza.
Agence France-Presse has contacted the Hong Kong government for comment.
With Agence France-Presse and Press Association
Source: theguardian.com
