Hong Kong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam has said she “would resign if she could”, according to an audio recording of a speech she gave to a group of businesspeople last week.

In often anguished remarks, she apologised for igniting the “unforgivable chaos” in the city and said her room to respond was “very limited” as the Chinese government now considers the protest movement a national security issue.

“If I have a choice,“ she said, ”the first thing is to quit, having made a deep apology.”

The audio recording of the speech, given in English, was obtained by Reuters and gives the clearest indication yet of the weakness of the Hong Kong government in relation to Beijing, which has not faced a political crisis this severe since the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

Ms Lam has long denied being a puppet of the Chinese government but reports have consistently made clear that the Communist Party is effectively calling the shots on how to handle the crisis.