UK says it will extend Hongkongers' visa rights if China pursues security laws

The UK will extend visa rights for as many as 300,000 Hong Kong British national (overseas) passport holders if China continues down the path of imposing repressive security laws on the former British colony, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said.

The move, which appears in outline to stop short of giving the BN(O)s a right of abode, is a response to growing Conservative backbench pressure on the Foreign Office to do more to help Hong Kong citizens fearful that China is about to extinguish their independence and political freedoms.

Related: Chinese parliament approves controversial Hong Kong security law

Raab said he would extend the BN(O) holders’ current right to visit for six months without a visa to an extendable 12 months, leading to a pathway for future citizenship. The proposal has been squared with the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the prime minister’s office, but details still need fleshing out.

Raab stressed the offer was dependent on the precise next steps China seeks to take to impose its security laws.

“In relation to BNO passport holders, currently they only have the right to come to the UK for six months,” he said. “If China continues down this path and implements this national security legislation, we will change that status. And we will remove that six-month limit and allow those BNO passport holders to come to the UK and to apply to work and study for extendable periods of 12 months and that will itself provide a pathway to future citizenship.”

Reaction to his announcement was mixed, with some disappointed that a full right of abode was not being offered, but others arguing that complex migration law issues needed examination.

Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, described the development as “fantastic”, but added: “Now we need to go further and recognise the full rights of British nationals.”

Bob Seeley, one of the Tory MPs leading the campaign to protect Hong Kong’s freedoms, said: “It’s a good start, but more is needed, such as the right to work in the UK and fast-track to UK citizenship”.

The Liberal Democrats called for the rights enjoyed by BN(O) passport holders to be extended to all Hong Kong citizens.

“This is a momentous decision by the government,” said Johnny Patterson from London-based human rights group Hong Kong Watch. “If things deteriorate further, the UK will need to consider extending the scheme beyond 12 months, up to and including right of abode.”

Raab acted after China’s rubber-stamp parliament approved new security laws that will fill what Beijing describes as loopholes in Hong Kong’s laws on policing, security and foreign interference.

A joint statement issued by Australia, Canada, the UK and the US condemned Beijing, saying the proposed laws would undermine Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” framework.

“It also raises the prospect of prosecution in Hong Kong for political crimes, and undermines existing commitments to protect the rights of Hong Kong people,” the statement said. “We are also extremely concerned that this action will exacerbate the existing deep divisions in Hong Kong society.”

The statement described Hong Kong as “a bastion of freedom” and said the international community had “a significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability”.

The UK is backing the US announcement that it is declaring that Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China – a statement that frees the US to withdraw trade preferences and open a route to economic sanctions. The EU is expected to make an announcement at a foreign affairs ministers meeting on Friday.

Lord Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, told the Guardian he hoped the laws did not spell the end of one country, two systems.

“What is hurting Hong Kong is the way that China has behaved because China is terrified of what Hong Kong stands for, because President Xi and his regime hates liberal democracy,” Patten said. “They hate free speech, they hate any attempts to discover what happened in the past, and hence their reaction to Tiananmen. They hate journalists and free journalism, they hate accountable governments. They don’t like democracy, they hate all those things. They regard them as a threat to communism.”

He said he was not in favour of sanctions against Hong Kong but said Britain should make sure the issue of Hong Kong is on the agency of next month’s meeting of the G7 and should support efforts to raise the issue at the UN security council when meetings resume.

“I hope Britain would start to work with our allies of liberal democracies around the world to make sure we have a united front supporting not only Hong Kong but actually standing up to bullying communists in Beijing,” he said.

“Every liberal democracy in the world and other countries is going to look at their relationship with China and understand that Xi’s regime – if you allow them to bully you on economic political or other issues – then they’ll keep on bullying you. And I think we need to wake up to the fact that this is a new Chinese regime and it’s a different sort of aggressive communism and it needs to be defended against.”