Furious Tory MPs urge government to heed US Huawei warning

Senior Tory MPs have demanded ministers act on ‘deadly serious’ warnings from the US that the involvement of Huawei in the construction of the UK’s 5G network will put intelligence sharing at risk. 

Owen Paterson, the former Cabinet minister, said the government’s attitude to the Chinese tech giant was ‘incomprehensible’ given White House opposition to using the firm. 

Mr Paterson is one of many Conservative MPs who are urging Downing Street to reverse its backing for Huawei and his intervention came after Donald Trump’s acting chief of staff had crunch talks on the issue in Number 10 today. 

Mick Mulvaney is understood to have led a delegation of US officials in a meeting with UK counterparts including Sir Edward Lister, one of Boris Johnson‘s top advisers.        

The meeting came after Mr Mulvaney told an event last night that the UK’s 5G decision on Huawei will have a ‘direct and dramatic impact’ on intelligence sharing with the US.   

Washington has urged its allies not to do business with Huawei due to security concerns. But Huawei has always denied that it poses a security risk. 

Mr Johnson announced at the end of January that the firm would be given a limited role in the UK’s 5G network. 

The decision sparked fury across the Atlantic and there is a growing Tory rebellion on the issue. 

Mr Paterson told MailOnline that Mr Mulvaney’s comments ‘confirm our very worst fears’.

He said that the government must now commit to eliminating Huawei involvement in the infrastructure ‘by a fixed date’ rather than just restricting the scale of the firm’s role.

‘Rather than aiming for 35 per cent market share they should be aiming for zero and it should be a coordinated programme, working with our Five Eyes allies,’ he said. 

‘The government should be aiming for zero Huawei involvement by a fixed date.

‘This is deadly serious. We have this incredibly close relationship with these four other like-minded Western nations and I just find the government’s attitude incomprehensible. What is the upside?

‘If it delays 5G for a few months or a year or so, fine, we can live with that.’ 

Mr Paterson has formed a group with other concerned Tory MPs, including former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and David Davis, to coordinate their efforts as they call for ‘high risk’ vendors to be removed from the network. 

Sir Iain said the UK had been ‘cosying up’ to China for the past two decades and it is ‘becoming an embarrassment’. 

The UK government has labelled Huawei ‘high risk’ but has still given the green light to it to help build non-core parts of the network. 

Mr Johnson has insisted the decision will not impact on intelligence sharing with the UK’s allies, including its Five Eyes partners – Canada, the US, New Zealand and  Australia. 

However, the US has repeatedly warned it will have an impact, with Mr Mulvaney last night piling the pressure on the British government as he addressed the Oxford Union. 

‘Our governments share a tremendous amount of security information,’ he said in comments reported by The Telegraph. 

‘We are very much concerned that integrity of that information is hardwired into your computer systems, and if you folks go forward with the decision, it will have a direct and dramatic impact on our ability to share information with you. 

‘Period, end of story.’

The delegation led by Mr Mulvaney was reportedly going to deliver a ‘b******ing’ to their UK counterparts over the Huawei decision during today’s meeting. 

Fury is not just confined to the US either with Australian MPs believed to have cancelled a visit to the UK next month because of their opposition to the move. 

Canberra has refused to allow Huawei involvement in its telecoms systems.