The vice-chairman of Hong Kong’s largest opposition party has left for London for unspecified reasons and will not return “within a short period of time”, sources have confirmed to the Post.

The departure of Lee Wing-tat on Friday night marked the latest blow to the Democratic Party, coming less than two months after the 65-year-old succeeded former lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting – currently remanded in jail under the national security law – to take up a core leadership role in the political group.

Pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po first reported the departure, publishing photos at 4am on Saturday showing Lee and his wife Josephine Chan Shu-ying at Hong Kong’s airport on Friday night. Lee walked into the departure hall after hugging his wife.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a core member of the party confirmed Lee’s departure without specifying reasons.

“[Lee] will not return to Hong Kong within a short period of time,” the source said.

The Post could not reach either Lee or Chan, also a veteran democrat.

According to sources, Chan, a former Tuen Mun district councillor, had told some of her party colleagues via WhatsApp: “I won’t speak for him even though I am his family member … Tat will respond by himself if necessary.”

Party chairman Lo Kin-hei said he would try to touch base with Lee, adding the latter had not resigned from the party.

Lee Wing-tat was elected as a lawmaker in 1991 and was the Democratic Party’s chairman from 2004 to 2006.

Former party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing had posted on Facebook a photo of her having dinner with Lee on Wednesday. She said Lee had not mentioned any plans to leave the city that night.

A former district councillor of the party, who hoped to remain anonymous, said Lee had been exploring ways over the past month to help councillors who had resigned maintain their connections to the communities. He was concerned that Lee’s departure would affect party morale.

“He was among the few veteran members who had already settled all the lawsuits. I think no one in the party expected him to leave his role that soon and suddenly,” he said.

Two of the party’s former chairmen – Albert Ho Chun-yan and Yeung Sum – are also currently behind bars.

Lee entered politics in the 1980s as a Kwai Tsing district councillor and formed the United Democrats of Hong Kong, which became the Democratic Party in 1994. He was elected as a lawmaker in 1991, and had been the group’s chairman from 2004 to 2006.

In 2019, he, together with other opposition activists, was convicted of public nuisance charges over the Occupy protests in 2014. Lee’s eight-month term was suspended for two years in light of his public service contributions.

In June this year, he returned to the party’s core leadership to overwhelming support from his members, and vowed to maintain party morale.

A pressing task for Lee then was to decide if members should run in the Legislative Council elections scheduled in December.

He had cited letters from three colleagues being held in custody for months – former chairman Wu Chi-wai, former vice-chairman Andrew Wan Siu-kin and Lam – as saying that the party should not join the race they regarded as “unjust”.

Since the enactment of the Beijing-imposed national security law, at least 20 prominent figures in the opposition camp have fled Hong Kong for London, Australia and Canada, including former lawmakers Ted Hui Chi-fung and Dennis Kwok.