A UK trade minister has urged Hong Kong authorities to explain the “deeply concerning” decision to hold and turn away a Liberal Democrat MP, as she tried to visit her baby grandson.
On a visit to China, Douglas Alexander has demanded that interlocutors explain why Wera Hobhouse was blocked from entering the Chinese region, and a Government spokesperson warned the incident risked to “further undermine Hong Kong’s international reputation”.
Ms Hobhouse, the MP for Bath, earlier said she feared a “hidden blacklist” might exist, and suggested the UK risked “falling into the arms of false friends” without scrutiny of London’s relationship with Beijing.
A Government spokesman said: “During his visit to mainland China and Hong Kong, minister for trade policy and economic security Douglas Alexander relayed our immediate and deep concern regarding MP Wera Hobhouse’s denial of entry into Hong Kong.
“Minister Alexander raised our concerns and demanded an explanation with senior Chinese and Hong Kong interlocutors, including Hong Kong’s chief secretary for administration, to understand why the Hong Kong authorities refused access to a British MP.
“It is deeply concerning that a UK MP was refused permission to enter Hong Kong last week.
“Unjustified restrictions on the freedom of movement for UK citizens into Hong Kong only serves to further undermine Hong Kong’s international reputation and the important people-to-people connections between the UK and Hong Kong.
“As the Foreign Secretary (David Lammy) has made clear and Minister Alexander relayed in person, it would be unacceptable for any MP to be denied entry for simply expressing their views.”
Ms Hobhouse travelled to Hong Kong on Thursday to visit her son, who has lived there since 2019, and new grandson.
She was detained at the airport, questioned and then put back on a flight to the UK.
Ms Hobhouse is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), which scrutinises British and Chinese relations.
Speaking to LBC, she said that while some MPs had been banned from entering China, her experience came as “a real shock”.
She added: “There must be some sort of hidden blacklist and this is of course why people want to get to the bottom of it.
“We want to know, and this is where me and the Foreign Office should really ask the ambassador and the Chinese authorities to give us an explanation.”
Ms Hobhouse later continued: “China is not a strategic ally, in fact in some cases it could be argued it’s the opposite. And they’re not a democracy, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) are only interested to expand their influence over countries like the UK. We should be pretty clear eyed about that.”
She said: “There is such a thing as a UK-China audit, where we should really look at the risks to some of our strategic national interests, and make sure that we are not in some sort (of a) way, falling into the arms of false friends.”
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