Ex-Hong Kong district councillor becomes second from city to sit on English local authority after moving through BN(O) migrant scheme
- Andy Ng, of the Liberal Democrats, will represent the Maiden Erlegh and Whitegates ward of Wokingham Borough Council
- ‘They have chosen a Hongkonger to represent them in the council because we share similar values,’ he says
A former Hong Kong district councillor has been elected to a British local authority, the second from the city to join the UK’s political scene after taking advantage of the emigration pathway offered by the country.
Andy Ng Siu-hong on Friday announced his victory in the Wokingham Borough Council election. The councillor-elect will represent the Maiden Erlegh and Whitegates ward on the Berkshire local authority.
The Liberal Democrats, Ng’s party, also celebrated a significant win in the Wokingham election after it took 27 out of its 54 seats, a major success for the party.
Ng won one of the three seats in the Maiden Erlegh and Whitegates ward, where he bagged 1,162 votes.
The victory “has proven that Hongkongers can still win by participating in politics in Britain”, he told media.
He added that the result indicated how well Hongkongers had integrated into British society.
“We do not just go to work and schools with locals,” he said. “The locals also support and accept Hongkongers as part of their community.
“They have chosen a Hongkonger to represent them in the council because we share similar values.”
Ng, a former member of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, was elected to the district council of the Mid Levels East area in 2015. He was re-elected in 2019, when the city’s opposition bloc achieved a landslide victory amid anti-government protests.
Ng announced his resignation on Facebook in April 2021 and moved to Reading in England with his family later that year. He did not explain the reasons for his departure at the time.
Ying Perrett, also of the Liberal Democrats, won the Bisley and West End ward of Surrey Heath Borough Council last November.
She was the first Hongkonger, who moved to the country under the BN(O) visa scheme, to win a seat in a local authority election.
Perrett also became a member of Bisley Parish Council, the lowest tier of the British local government system.
Visa holders are allowed to work or live in Britain for five years before they are eligible to apply for citizenship.
Britain’s ruling Conservative Party suffered a massive defeat in Thursday’s local authority elections, widely regarded as a bellwether for the fate of Rishi Sunak’s administration at the next general election, which must be held by January 28, 2025.
There were more than 2,500 local council seats up for re-election and the Conservatives lost more than 400. The opposition Labour Party gained 173 seats.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said it was a “historic campaign” after his party won the mayor’s seat in Sunak’s own backyard of York and North Yorkshire by almost 15,000 votes.
The Liberal Democrats also added more than 100 seats.
Most polls for the general election showed Labour with a lead of about 20 percentage points over the Conservatives.
