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UK delegation probing Hong Kong's political reform may visit next month

A delegation of British lawmakers accused by Beijing of "meddling'' in Hong Kong affairs could arrive in the city as early as next month for a parliamentary inquiry.

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British Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Richard Ottaway says the trip was necessary despite Beijing's warnings.

A delegation of British lawmakers accused by Beijing of "meddling'' in Hong Kong affairs could arrive in the city as early as next month for a parliamentary inquiry.

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As political tensions persist and the Occupy Central protest enters its second month amid high-level accusations of "foreign interference'', the chairman of the British Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee said its requests to meet Hong Kong and central government figures had been rejected.

The delegation plans to take evidence as part of an inquiry into whether the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration - which laid the foundations of the city's return to Chinese sovereignty - have been breached.

Committee head Richard Ottaway said the trip was necessary despite Beijing's warnings.

"We never do a report without visiting the country that we are assessing because you can't assess … without actually talking to people in Hong Kong," he said.

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Ottaway said both the Hong Kong and central governments had declined invitations to meet but meetings with a number of other key figures in the city "had not been rejected".

He declined to identify those figures or say exactly when the delegation would arrive but it is understood the second half of November has been pencilled in.

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