Nightmare for Lib Dem MP deported from Hong Kong - 'very close to tears'

A Liberal Democrats MP said she was "shocked" and "very close to tears" after being refused entry into Hong Kong to visit her newborn grandson. Wera Hobhouse said she had been interrogated for five hours by immigration officials before being deported - a move Lib Dems leader Ed Davey branded as "heartless and totally unacceptable".

Ms Hobhouse said she had flown to Hong Kong on Thursday but was held up and interrogated at airport security by immigration officers before being put back on a plane to England. She had her passport confiscated, was asked about her job and why she had travelled to Hong Kong and had her luggage searched and swabbed.

The Bath MP told The Times said she hadn't even been able to hug her own son who was waiting for her in arrivals. Sir Ed Davey said: "Wera just wanted to visit her son in Hong Kong and meet her baby grandson for the first time. But after a 13-hour flight, the Chinese authorities turned her away - just because she's a British MP. So heartless. And totally unacceptable."

Davey has written to Foreign Secretary David Lammy demanding he "urgently" meet the MP and summon the Chinese ambassador to London to "provide a full account of why a British MP and her family have been treated in such an appalling way". Ms Hobhouse' husband was with her and was allowed to enter but chose to return to Britain with his wife.

Ms Hobhouse has not been visited Hong Kong before and was expecting to spend time with her son's family. She said: "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.

"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."

The MP is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac), an international group of politicians highly critical of China. Five years ago, Beijing sanctioned five Tory MPs and two peers who has criticised the treatment of Uighur Muslims.

Ms Hobhouse said this weekend: "I've said very little about the Uighurs... never have I stuck my head above the parapet. Because I was going to Hong Kong, I wanted to absolutely ensure that none of my political things would interfere with my private visit.

"If I had any sort of guilty conscience I would have been a bit more careful - but I didn't."