Former Hong Kong No 2 is first big gun to support Regina Ip for top job

As heavyweights hold back and await a signal from Beijing, David Akers-Jones says he will attend likely launch rally next week

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Regina Ip with David Akers-Jones, who supported Leung Chun-ying in 2012. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 10:45pm, 8 Dec 2016Updated: 9:44am, 15 Dec 2016

Former chief secretary David Akers-Jones has become the first political heavyweight to indicate his support for New People’s Party chairwoman Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee’s bid for Hong Kong’s top job.

Akers-Jones, 89, who backed Leung Chun-ying in the 2012 chief executive election, said in an exclusive interview with the Post on Thursday that he had accepted Ip’s invitation to attend a rally next Thursday, when she is expected to announce her candidacy.

He is among the few VIPs who have committed to showing up at Ip’s gathering at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai, while most pro-Beijing parties are shunning it.

They consider it premature to endorse anyone because the two most hotly tipped contenders – incumbent Leung and Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah – have yet to declare their bids, and Beijing has not signalled its preference yet.

Executive councillor and lawmaker Ip, a former security minister, will be the second person to formally announce a serious candidacy, after retired judge Woo Kwok-hing.

Ip has been actively lobbying in the lead up to the announcement. On Friday, she met pro-establishment teachers group, Education Convergence, to discuss education issues.