A Liberal Democrat MP who was denied entry to Hong Kong on a family visit has said it should be a “wake-up call” to all parliamentarians.
Wera Hobhouse told Sky News Breakfast with Leah Boleto that she had no warning she was on a “blacklist” when she flew out last week to meet her newborn grandson.
She 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, The Sunday Times first reported.
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Ms Hobhouse told Sky News: “No explanation was given to me ever. And this is what is so chilling and should really be a wake-up call for any parliamentarian because I had no warning that I was on a blacklist.”
She added that she hopes the government will “push for an explanation” and find out “whether there is such a blacklist and what it is that they don’t like about me”.
The MP said she suspects it happened because she is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac). although she said she has “not been more outspoken than other MPs about criticising the Chinese Communist Party”.
“Therefore, anybody who is seen as standing up for freedom, democracy and human rights should feel that they are going to be targeted by the Chinese authorities and that is really, really chilling,” she said.
China has previously banned other Ipac members, including Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Nusrat Ghani, as well as former security minister Tom Tugendhat.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has called on the foreign secretary to summon the Chinese ambassador in the wake of the decision, which he described as “heartless” and “totally unacceptable”.
In a letter to David Lammy, he asked the minister to uncover “why a British MP and her family have been treated in such an appalling way”.
“We are sure you will agree that this is a deeply concerning situation,” Sir Ed said.
“The UK cannot allow the Chinese government to attempt to undermine our democracy by intimidating our parliamentarians.”
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Mr Lammy previously described Ms Hobhouse’s experience as “deeply concerning” and said he would “urgently raise” the issues with authorities in both Hong Kong and Beijing to “demand an explanation”.
Speaking for the government on Monday, Treasury minister James Murray also described it as “very concerning”, adding that “clearly it would not be right to prevent a British MP from entering another country purely on the basis of what they had said”.
He said the UK has to be “pragmatic and clear-headed” about the situation and “there are different ways in which we engage with China”.
It comes after two Labour MPs were denied entry to Israel last week.
Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed were deported from the country due to comments they had made about the conflict in Gaza.
They were suspected of planning to “document the activities of security forces and spread anti-Israeli hatred”, according to Israel’s immigration ministry.
