Hongkongers make BN(O) passports an election issue for British foreign secretary Dominic Raab

A group of Hongkongers living or studying in Britain is targeting Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab’s re-election campaign after it emerged that he blocked a government plan to give full citizenship to Hong Kong residents with BN(O) passports.

They are calling on British voters in Raab’s constituency of Esher and Walton to support his rival Monica Harding, following a Sunday Times report that he was blocking a Home Office initiative to “allow victims of state repression and violence in Hong Kong to flee to the UK” because he feared antagonising Beijing.

The Hongkongers accused the foreign secretary of “siding with an authoritarian state rather than freedom fighters” and insisted their action would not constitute interference in foreign politics, “because BN(O) holders residing in the UK are legally eligible to vote, and Raab’s decision bears a direct impact on our fate”, according to one of the group who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Luke de Pulford, a member of the Conservative Party’s human rights committee and a vocal advocate for Hong Kong protesters, said he was in regular contact with “hundreds of UK-based activists … They feel betrayed by the UK, and they are profoundly upset by reports that Raab has blocked a ‘lifeboat’ policy for BN(O) passport holders [and] many have decided to campaign for Raab’s constituency rival”.

He called on Raab to change his stance on BN(O) passports lest he lose his seat in an election that Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes will secure a majority to get his Brexit deal passed.

“As a lifelong Conservative, I hope the foreign secretary has a rapid rethink – not simply because he may lose his seat if he does not, but because helping BN(O)s is a matter of justice,” he said.