Two men have been arrested under the Official Secrets Act amid allegations that a parliamentary researcher spied for China.
The researcher is understood to have had links to several senior Tory MPs, including the security minister, Tom Tugendhat, and the foreign affairs committee chair, Alicia Kearns.
He was arrested along with another man by officers on 13 March, it was revealed by the Sunday Times.
Officers from the Metropolitan police’s counter-terrorism command, which oversees espionage-related offences, are investigating.
One of the men, in his 30s, was detained in Oxfordshire, while the other, in his 20s, was arrested in Edinburgh, Scotland Yard said. “Searches were also carried out at both the residential properties, as well as at a third address in east London,” it added in a statement.
Both men were held at a south London police station before being bailed until early October.
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China pressure group said it was “appalled at reports of the infiltration of the UK parliament by someone allegedly acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China”.
Tugendhat is said not to have had any contact with the researcher since before he became security minister in September last year.
Contrast the reaction of the UK to people with direct access to a security minister and foreign affairs committee chair arrested for allegations of having spied for the CCP, bailed until trial next month, with the reaction of the CCP in Hong Kong to individuals like Jimmy Lai, a newspaper owner, held without trial for years for “collusion with foreign powers”. There are thousands of political prisoners in Hong Kong, held without trial.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The researcher is understood to have had links to several senior Tory MPs, including the security minister, Tom Tugendhat, and the foreign affairs committee chair, Alicia Kearns.
He insisted that the UK would seek a “pragmatic” relationship with China to tackle major global issues such as the climate crisis.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, one of the party’s most prominent China hawks, warned of a “deepening threat” being posed by the country under president Xi Jinping.
A report from parliament’s spy agency watchdog, the intelligence and security committee, warned in July that Beijing was targeting the UK “prolifically and aggressively”.
Last year, MI5 issued a rare security alert, warning MPs that a suspected Chinese spy called Christine Lee had engaged in “political interference activities” on behalf of China’s communist regime.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said on Saturday: “This is an immensely serious report and shows why the UK needs a much more comprehensive response to national security threats and challenges from China and other countries.
The original article contains 566 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 70%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Execution!
