An official delegation from China has been banned from attending the Queen’s lying-in-state, it emerged today.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle refused a request after Beijing sanctioned five MPs and two peers last year, Politico and then the BBC reported.
A spokeswoman for Sir Lindsay declined to comment.
But China will still be allowed to send representatives to the Queen’s funeral across the street at Westminster Abbey - angering some MPs.
In a letter to the Commons and Lords Speakers, a group of MPs and peers said it was "extraordinary that the architects of genocide" against Uighur Muslims had been asked to attend.
Representatives from around 200 countries are set to be at the funeral with only a handful - including Russia, Belarus and Myanmar - not invited.
Diplomatic relations between the UK and China have been deteriorating for years over the nation’s treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province.
China denies abuses but the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said two weeks ago that “serious human rights violations” have been committed.
The report added: “Allegations of patterns of torture, or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence.”
The UK government has also warned of risks to national security due to Chinese-linked firms’ involvement in energy or communications infrastructure.
In March last year China announced travel bans and asset freezes on nine people, including seven who sit in Parliament.
They were Tory MPs Iain Duncan Smith, Neil O'Brien, Tim Loughton, Nusrat Ghani and Tom Tugendhat, and peers Baroness Kennedy and Lord Alton.
The Chinese Government is reportedly considering sending a delegation to the funeral on Monday in Westminster Abbey but it is unclear whether President Xi Jinping will attend.
The Chinese leader this week meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Uzbekistan.
Liz Truss has vowed to take a harder line against China on the world stage.
A House of Commons spokesman said: “We do not comment on security matters”.
The lying-in-state queue reached five miles by 9am this morning as mourners were warned they would have to wait 11 and a half hours.
MPs have been allowed to skip the queue with a small number of guests, as have Commons staff such as cleaners and caterers.
MPs’ staff have not been afforded the same honour, leading to a bitter row. Journalists have been given time-slots to observe the lying-in-state from the end of the hall, though not pass the coffin.
