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The UK government is “greatly concerned” and wants an account of why the Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse was denied entry to Hong Kong on a family visit to meet her three-month-old grandson for the first time.
Hobhouse, 65, the MP for Bath, said she was held at Hong Kong airport on arrival on Thursday, told she was being refused entry and put on a flight back to the UK five hours later.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, has called on the foreign secretary, David Lammy, to “meet urgently with Hobhouse to discuss her case, and summon the Chinese ambassador to provide a full account of why a British MP and her family have been treated in such an appalling way”.
The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “On this particular situation, yes, we are greatly concerned and we need an account of exactly what has happened.
“There hasn’t been an account provided at this stage. Obviously if Wera has been denied access because she’s a British MP, that would be something we take very seriously.”
Hobhouse told the Sunday Times her passport was confiscated, she was asked about her job and the purpose of her trip, her luggage was searched and swabbed, then she was escorted to the boarding gate by four immigration officers.
Her son, a university academic living in Hong Kong since 2019, was waiting in the arrivals hall. Her husband, William, a businessman, was allowed entry but chose also to return to the UK. She is believed to be the first MP refused entry since the 1997 handover of Hong Kong.
Hobhouse, who has never visited Hong Kong, said she was given no explanation but believes it was because she is an MP. She is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), an international group of politicians that scrutinises Beijing’s approach to human rights and has criticised the crackdown on free speech in Hong Kong.
Speaking to the BBC’s Newscast, Hobhouse suggested the decision had probably been an attempt “to shut me up”.
She said: “It is very chilling that authoritarian countries can treat us in this way. Until now, I think there had been a diplomatic understanding that we might have different values, different political ideas but there is some sort of basic rule in which we allow politicians into each other’s countries, and that sort of understanding seems to be collapsing.”
In a joint statement, other British MPs who are members of Ipac urged the government and the Commons speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, to “take a very strong stand in addressing this affront to democratic principles and personal freedoms”.
They said: “Detained and deported without explanation, Hobhouse’s exclusion appears linked to her criticism of Beijing’s human rights record, and possibly her membership of this network.”
The incident coincided with UK ministers visiting China and Hong Kong to develop trade and investment links. “That the Hong Kong authorities felt able to deny entry to a sitting parliamentarian while simultaneously hosting UK ministers is an insult to parliament,” the MPs said.
“That they appear to have done so because of an objection to something a UK MP has said in the legitimate exercise of her duties is a challenge to our core values as a nation.”
Lammy has said he would raise the issue with the authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing, saying it was “deeply concerning to hear that an MP on a personal trip has been refused entry to Hong Kong”.
Hobhouse told the Sunday Times: “When I was given the decision, my voice was shaking and I was just saying: ‘Why, please explain to me.’ They never gave me an explanation. That was so cruel. I just said: ‘I want to see my grandson. I want to cuddle him.’”
She added: “I am obviously devastated. Having to fly back, it was so hard. I didn’t cry but I was very close to tears.”
Hobhouse said there were far more outspoken critics of the Chinese Communist party than her, and she had been careful “to ensure that none of my political things would interfere with my private visit”.
China has previously banned several British MPs from entering the country, including the Ipac members Iain Duncan Smith and Nusrat Ghani, and the former security minister Tom Tugendhat.
Lammy and the Foreign Office minister Catherine West are said to be in contact with Hobhouse.
The Liberal Democrat deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, posted on X questioning if Kemi Badenoch would “say anything about a British MP arbitrarily blocked from entering Hong Kong?”, adding: “Or will she fail to, like she failed to back MPs blocked from entering Israel. Why won’t she stand up for our parliamentarians?”
Cooper’s post is thought to be in response to comments last week when the Conservative leader faced criticism after saying she respected Israel’s decision to deny Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang entry. Badenoch had said in a post on X that “unlike China, Israel is our ally”.
