Hong Kong's democratic lawmakers called for an official inquiry into the city's embattled leader Wednesday, saying he "has no political integrity" after receiving large undeclared payments from an Australian company.

It came hours after the territory's former governor Chris Patten criticised Hong Kong's lack of leadership in the face of mass democracy protests, which have lasted more than a month.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's approval ratings are at an all-time low as demonstrators continue to occupy key parts of the city.

Adding to his woes, Leung was forced to deny allegations made by an Australian newspaper last month that he had failed to declare HK$50 million ($6.5 million), which he received from Australian engineering company UGL while in office.

The payments relate to a deal struck in December 2011 -- months before Leung took office, but a week after he announced his candidacy -- during UGL's purchase of insolvent property services firm DTZ, for which Leung was director and chairman of its regional operations.

Leung's office has said the dealing was "a confidential commercial arrangement and a standard business practice" which did not need to be declared.

But accusations of dishonesty continue to dog him.

"Leung Chun-ying has no political integrity at all... until now he hasn't made it clear why he didn't make a declaration," lawmaker Claudia Mo said Wednesday in the Legislative Council, the city's de facto parliament.

Mo put forward a motion backed by more than 20 other lawmakers for a select committee to investigate. A complaint by members of the city's Democracy Party has already been lodged with the city's corruption bureau.

"Obviously there is something he can't say. Are there details that he doesn't dare come out to talk about? It's not clear to Hong Kong people what he has been doing," Mo said.

Speaking before the UK parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee late Tuesday, Patten -- the last British governor of the territory -- said that there was a "seriously sad" and "extraordinary lack of leadership" from the chief executive in response to the protests which have gripped the city.

"The worry now is that it's become increasingly difficult for anybody to climb down," he said.

Beijing ruled in August that candidates for the city's next leadership elections in 2017 must be vetted by a loyalist committee in what protesters call "fake democracy".

A small group of activists staged a protest outside China's representative office in Hong Kong Wednesday demanding the release of pro-democracy supporters recently arrested on the mainland.

'Times have changed' China tells Hong Kong's last British governor
Beijing (AFP) Nov 05, 2014 - China admonished the last British governor of Hong Kong on Wednesday, after he called on London to do more to encourage democracy in the former colony.

Chris Patten, who oversaw the transfer of Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule in 1997, had said Beijing was wrong to insist the situation in the territory was nothing to do with London, due to the binding agreements signed between the governments.

"He should stop his words and actions that embolden the Occupy Central movement," Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular briefing, referring to the demonstrators who have staged street rallies and road blockades for more than a month.

"As the last governor marking the end of the UK's colonial rule over Hong Kong, he should know better and see clearly that the times have changed."

The protestors in Hong Kong are calling for free leadership elections in 2017, when universal suffrage has been promised.

"When China asserts that what's happening in Hong Kong is nothing to do with us, we should make it absolutely clear, publicly and privately, that is absolutely not the case," Patten said Tuesday, adding he was "amazed" that Britain's Foreign Office was not pushing harder at Beijing.

Patten was testifying before parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, which is looking into Britain's relations with Hong Kong 30 years after the Joint Declaration, the agreement that outlined the city's return to Chinese sovereignty.

"Hong Kong affairs are China's domestic affairs; no foreign government or individual has the right to interfere in Hong Kong affairs in any way," Hong said.