Junius Ho

He is a 32nd-generation descendant of his Hakka clan, which can be traced back to the 10th century.

Junius Ho Kwan-yiu (born 4 June 1962) is a Hong Kong lawyer and politician who currently serves as a member in the Hong Kong Legislative Council.

Ho attended Queen's College Hong Kong from 1975 to 1979, after which he went to the United Kingdom, where he enrolled at Chelmer Institute of Higher Education and obtained his bachelor of laws degree in 1984.

Ho joined a post-graduate programme at the University of Hong Kong in 1984 and obtained his mandatory practising qualification, the postgraduate certificate in laws (PCLL) in 1986.

After gaining his qualifications he was admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong in 1988 and similarly admitted in Singapore, and England and Wales in 1995 and 1997.

He is the senior partner of a law firm in Hong Kong and a principal representative of a law firm in Guangzhou.

His major practice field is civil litigation, specialising in shareholders' disputes and family disputes.

He was appointed a China-Appointed Attesting Officer in 2003.

He became the vice-president of the Law Society of Hong Kong in June 2005 and was elected president for a one-year term in May 2011, after which he has served as a council member.

Ho first contested a Legislative Council election in 2008, running against Civic Party's Margaret Ng in the Legal functional constituency.

He was defeated, receiving 1,286 votes, about 34 percent of the vote.

In 2011, Junius Ho was bestowed with an Honorary Doctor of Laws by Anglia Ruskin University, with the university describing him as an "outstanding ambassador".

Ho was elected as Chairman of Tuen Mun Rural Committee in 2011, ousting the long-time chairman and most powerful rural leader Lau Wong-fat, chairman of the Heung Yee Kuk.

In that capacity, he became an ex officio member of the Tuen Mun District Council.

He was a candidate in the Legislative Council election in New Territories West in September 2012, where he received 10,805 votes, about two per cent of total vote share and was not elected.

A prominent pro-Beijing and anti-gay rights figure in Hong Kong’s political landscape, he formerly served as president of the Law Society of Hong Kong, chairman of the Tuen Mun Rural Committee and as an elected member of the Tuen Mun District Council from 2015 to 2019.

Ho came from a family of village leaders.

He grew up in the old site of Leung Tin Village in Tuen Mun.

He served as the rural committee chairman until 2015.

Ho was appointed to Lingnan University council by Chief Executive of Hong Kong Leung Chun-ying in October 2015.

Students staged a protest against the appointment over fears of political interference in university governance.

In the 2015 District Council elections, Junius Ho defeated Albert Ho of the Democratic Party in the latter's long-held Lok Tsui seat in a six-way contest by a narrow margin of 277 votes, as the pro-democracy votes were split between Albert Ho and Cheng Chung-tai of Civic Passion.

Ho ran again in the 2016 Legislative Council election for the New Territories West.

During the election, Ho's supporters were allegedly involved in the withdrawal of candidacy of Liberal Party candidate Ken Chow Wing-kan.

Chow claimed he had been intimidated after receiving threats made against him.

On the following day, Ho identified that some of the threats were made by one of his volunteers that had helped him for about one or two months; but Ho defended him by stating that the volunteer only wanted to be angry for him.

Ho was elected with 35,657 votes, winning the last of nine seats in the constituency.

In 2017, his legal qualifications in England and Wales, and Singapore was disputed, and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) was contacted regarding this matter.

It was reported that the individual by the name of "Junius Kwan-Yiu Ho" does not appear to be on the SRA's records.

The dispute, however, was later clarified, for a member by the name of "Kwan Yiu Ho" does appear to be on SRA's records.

In May 2017, pro-democracy lawyer Kevin Yam published an article urging solicitors not to vote for Junius Ho in the election for the governing council of the Law Society of Hong Kong.

Ho sued for defamation but failed to be re-elected, securing only 572 of 8,148 votes, coming last.

After the 2019 Yuen Long attack, an online petition via Change.org was launched urging Anglia Ruskin University to reconsider the honorary award, and the university was notified after the petition reached 500 signatures on 25 July 2019.

On 26 October, Lord Alton of Liverpool published a letter addressed to the vice-chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University, requesting the university to consider removing Ho's honorary doctorate, citing alleged examples of "misogyny", "extremism" and "racism".

On 28 October 2019, at the urging of activist Luke de Pulford Anglia Ruskin University withdrew Ho's honorary degree following an investigation, with a statement from the university noting, "Mr Ho's conduct since he was honoured has caused increasing concern."

On 6 December 2019, Ho received an honorary law doctorate at the China University of Political Science and Law for his "outstanding contribution and achievements in the legal sector".

In the 2019 District Council elections, Ho with 2,626 votes lost his seat to his rival Lo Chun-yu who had 1,213 more votes.

In December 2021, Hong Kong Free Press reported that Ho's voting power in the 2021 Hong Kong legislative election was approximately 7,215 times more than that of an ordinary citizen, as he was a member of the Election Committee and thus could vote for the 40 Legislative Council members elected by the Election Committee constituency; an individual voter in the Heung Yee Kuk functional constituency; a representative of Ho K.C. & Fong Solicitors & Notaries which was a corporate voter in the Commercial (First) functional constituency; as well as being a regular voter in his geographical constituency, New Territories North.

In November 2023, Chris Tang refuted Ho's claims that the Security Bureau was making too nice of a prison.

Later, an SCMP editorial re-affirmed Tang's comments and said that the prison's upgrades were necessary.