Parliamentary security guards confiscated reports and leaflets about Hong Kong from attenders of an event in Westminster in case they caused political upset, the Guardian has learned, in a move condemned by a senior Conservative MP as “completely daft”. Officers on the parliamentary estate forced people attending a meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on Hong Kong last Monday to hand over copies of a report by the group about press freedom there, as well as leaflets campaigning for the release of the media tycoon Jimmy Lai. Commons officials said the material constituted “political slogans or materials”, which members of the public are not allowed to bring on to the parliamentary estate. The material was eventually returned under pressure from David Davis, the Conservative former cabinet minister. But the row comes at a sensitive time for UK-China relations over Hong Kong, with ministers already facing pressure to stop a high-ranking Chinese official from attending the coronation because of his role in clamping down on democracy in the city. Davis said: “It is barking mad, completely daft. I can see why you might not want people handing out controversial leaflets in Central Lobby [the hall between the House of Commons and the House of Lords], but that is fairly easy to police without confiscating everything.”
A spokesperson for the UK parliament said: “We recognise the importance of democratic access to the Houses of Parliament. However, political slogans and materials are included on our restricted items, which parliament asks visitors to surrender on entering parliament which are returned when visitors leave the estate.” Members of the public were invited on Monday afternoon to an event by the all-party parliamentary group on Hong Kong, at which the committee distributed copies of its most recent report, entitled Media Freedom in Hong Kong: the case of Jimmy Lai and Apple Daily. The group is co-chaired by the Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael and the former Green party leader Natalie Bennett.
The report examines how Lai, a British citizen and the founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, was arrested in 2020 on charges of violating China’s sweeping national security law. It makes a number of criticisms of the UK government for not doing more to campaign against his imprisonment, saying: “The British government may not have been completely silent on these developments, but its utterances have been barely a whisper when they should have been loud and clear, as a British citizen has been arrested on false charges and incarcerated, probably for life, with no prospect whatsoever of a fair trial.” Many of those present at the meeting were also given signs protesting against Lai’s incarceration. The A4 placards, which were held up for photographers by several MPs, including Davis himself, read: “In prison for printing the truth. #FreeJimmyLai”. However, when some of those attending the meeting then made their way to another part of the parliamentary estate for a separate event on defamation law, they were stopped at a security checkpoint and told to surrender the signs and copies of the report.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher, a barrister who was forced to give up her Hong Kong-related material, told the Guardian: “It was very officious and all a bit ridiculous. The officers even started flicking through one of my notebooks, and I had to tell them they were legally privileged.” Gallagher said she believed security officials may have been anxious because of Extinction Rebellion protests that were taking place that day outside parliament. It is not the first time parliamentary guards have been criticised for an apparently heavy-handed interpretation of the rules against political materials being brought into parliament. Earlier this year, a woman invited to parliament to attend the opening of an exhibition was asked to scratch off an old “stop Brexit” sticker from the top of her laptop before entering. And in 2021, the gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was given an official apology after parliamentary security officers confiscated a badge that read “Outrage! Queers against homophobia”.