A Liberal Democrat MP has been denied entry to Hong Kong where she was due to visit her newborn grandson.
Wera Hobhouse landed at Hong Kong airport on Thursday after a 13-hour flight – only to be detained by security, questioned, and put on a return flight to the UK, she told The Times.
She had been due to visit her three-month-old grandson and described Chinese authorities’ actions as a “cruel and upsetting blow”.
“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,” she told the newspaper.
Ms Hobhouse is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac) and has spoken out against Beijing’s alleged human rights violations in both Hong Kong and Tibet.
China has previously banned other Ipac members, including Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Nusrat Ghani, as well as former security minister Tom Tugendhat.
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Foreign Secretary David Lammy described Ms Hobhouse’s experience as “deeply concerning” and says he will “urgently raise” the issues with authorities in both Hong Kong and Beijing to “demand an explanation”.
“It is deeply concerning to hear that an MP on a personal trip has been refused entry to Hong Kong,” he said.
“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.”
It comes after two Labour MPs were denied entry to Israel last week.
Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed were suspected of planning to “document the activities of security forces and spread anti-Israeli hatred”, according to the country’s immigration ministry.
Ms Hobhouse claimed she is the “first MP to be refused entry on arrival to Hong Kong since 1997”.
Her party leader Sir Ed Davey described the decision as “heartless” and “totally unacceptable”.
