Hong Kong authorities have strongly condemned the “untruthful remarks, slanders and smears” in the UK’s monitoring report on the city, which claimed that national security legislation had diminished the city’s political autonomy.

In a statement published early on Friday morning, a Hong Kong government spokesman said the UK was not entitled to interfere with the city’s affairs, which were part of China’s internal affairs.

He added that the UK continued to “unscrupulously distort the facts” in criticising the Beijing-imposed national security law and Article 23 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, and called Britain’s bullying acts “utterly ugly and despicable”.

“The UK must stop distorting the truth, blatantly discrediting the judicial system and trials of Hong Kong, in an attempt to glorify criminal behaviour and exert pressure on the courts,” he said.