U-turn as delegation from China allowed to pay its respects
COMMONS Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has defended the apparent U-turn on inviting Chinese representatives to attend the Queen’s lying-in-state.
Last week it was understood the delegation from Beijing would be banned from Westminster Hall in line with the Chinese ambassador’s own prohibition from Parliament.
But over the weekend parliamentary officials confirmed that, while Ambassador Zheng Zeguang is still barred from the premises, the ban would not be extended to other officials.
Yesterday Sir Lindsay said that the Uturn was not ‘about the politics of a moment’ but the ‘grief that we all share’ over Her Majesty.
He insisted the ban on the Chinese ambassador would remain until sanctions are lifted.
The move comes amid an uproar from senior MPs sanctioned by China that representatives have been invited to today’s funeral.
Last night Chinese vice-president Wang Qishan was seen in Westminster Hall alongside a four- strong delegation from Beijing.
He is attending as a special envoy of president Xi Jinping and will become the most senior Chinese politician to visit the UK since the pandemic.
Sir Lindsay said: ‘Nobody has been leaning on me at all, far from it. My view remains the same that we would not welcome [a] reception in Parliament and that’s when I stopped the ambassador and accredited Chinese from coming into the House of Commons.’
He told BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: ‘Let’s be clear, to hold a reception in the House of Commons when MPs and a peer have been sanctioned is not acceptable, my view remains the same and nothing has changed.
‘But this is not about the politics of a moment, this is about the grief that we all share, rather than being overshadowed. But as I say and I’ll repeat again, the sanction against those accredited officials remains in place and will remain so.
‘There is a very easy answer: Lift the sanctions and we can also then look to see whether we should have a reception in Parliament, but this is not going to happen at the moment.’
On Saturday Conservative former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, one of seven British politicians sanctioned by the Chinese government, praised the Lords and Commons speakers for ‘standing up and speaking out for free speech’ when it was thought that the Chinese delegation was banned.
He also lamented the decision to uphold their invitation to the funeral, telling the Daily Mail: ‘In the most senior church in the land, while Christians are being persecuted in Hong Kong, the people that are carrying out the persecution are invited to attend this funeral.’ Last week the sanctioned group of MPs and peers wrote to the Commons and Lords speakers saying that they were ‘greatly concerned’ over the invitation.
A parliamentary spokesman said: ‘The head of states (or their representatives) who have been invited to attend the state funeral in Westminster Abbey are also invited to attend the lying- in- state in Westminster Hall.’
A source added that the Chinese ambassador is still not welcome on the estate while some MPs and peers remain sanctioned by Beijing.
‘Not about politics of a moment’