The UK is committed to “stand up for the people of Hong Kong”, the Prime Minister's office said on 8 December, as UK lender HSBC comes under fire for its treatment of protestors in the region.

The comments from Number 10 follow Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith’s criticism of the bank on 7 December. The co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China told members of the British parliament on 7 December that HSBC and two other banks had frozen the accounts of one of the leaders of a protest group in the region “obviously prompted by the Hong Kong government and China”.