Update | CY Leung, senior Hong Kong officials snub UK inquiry into Joint Declaration

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has snubbed a British parliamentary committee's invitation to give evidence at its inquiry into the implementation of the Joint Declaration.

Richard Ottaway, chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee - whose visit to Hong Kong was banned by Beijing - said in an interview with the South China Morning Po st on Tuesday that his committee invited Leung and other Hong Kong officials earlier this week to give evidence to the inquiry via video link. "But they refused without giving any reason," Ottaway said.

Beijing last month banned a visit by the committee to Hong Kong originally scheduled for this month.

China's ambassador to Britain, Liu Xiaoming, wrote in an article published in the Daily Telegraph on December 6 that the committee members were banned from entering Hong Kong because their visit could "pour oil over fire" and give Occupy Central activists "the illusion of external support".

But the committee has urged the British government to summon Liu to the Foreign Office to lodge a formal protest against Beijing's ban of the visit.

Ottaway said the British government had not responded to the committee's call, saying it can respond within two months.

"Barring us from visiting Hong Kong is the clearest breach of the Joint Declaration because it provides a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong," he said.