A pathway to British citizenship, offered to Hong Kong holders of the British National Overseas passport, could help fill the talent drain facing Britain after the country left the European Union, Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai said on a live Twitter chat on Thursday.

Hong Kong people shared a similar language, lifestyle and values with Britain, Lai noted, and professionals from the city would be able to make a contribution.

His partner on the live chat, chair and co-founder of Hong Kong Watch Benedict Rogers, said that the United Kingdom had a moral responsibility to the people of the former British colony. A lot of British politicians were not familiar with Hong Kong previously, but topics concerning the city’s rights and freedoms had been carrying more weight in British politics lately, he said.

The pair were discussing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement in July that, following the enactment of national security laws in Hong Kong, the U.K. would open citizenship to BNO passport holders after a total of six years of stay.

BNO passports are issued only to Hongkongers born before the 1997 handover of the city to China, and the citizenship pathway will be limited to these people and their offspring.

Politicians in the U.K. understood that they should also take into consideration young Hongkongers born after the 1997 handover, Rogers said. As the China threat to the free world following its economic rise had become increasingly visible, it would only push Britain to come up with more policies favorable to Hongkongers, he added.

Lai said he was pleased to see that U.K. politicians had resumed their moral responsibility to Hong Kong. Recent rhetoric by the Hong Kong government that claimed the city had no separation of powers had alienated people further, he said. He compared the provision of separation of powers in the common law system to oxygen in the air, meaning it was the most fundamental element in the stability of Hong Kong.

Lai revealed that recently, he had received calls from business friends who thought the national security law had nothing to do with them but were nevertheless shocked and anxious when the government said the separation of powers did not exist in Hong Kong. “They called me asking me where they should go,” he said.

Rogers said he did not want to see people of Hong Kong being made to leave their hometown, but that the U.K. would welcome Hongkongers when they needed it.

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