The tip of an iceberg - ask Australia…
British parliamentary researcher linked to senior Tory MPs suspected of spying for Beijing
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b...cher-xrtbrw86m
Commons ‘Chinese spy’ arrested
A British parliamentary researcher has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China in what is alleged to be one of the most damaging breaches of security involving a hostile state at Westminster.
The male suspect, who is in his late twenties, is understood to be linked to a number of senior Tory MPs, including several who are privy to classified or highly sensitive information. They include Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, and Alicia Kearns, the chairwoman of the Commons foreign affairs committee.
A senior Whitehall source claimed: “This is a major escalation by China. We have never seen anything like this before.”
Counterterrorism police arrested the researcher and another man in his thirties on suspicion of espionage-related offences in March.
The researcher is a Briton who held a parliamentary pass and has worked with MPs on international policy, including relations with Beijing, for several years.
He previously spent time living and working in China, where security officials fear he may have been recruited as a sleeper agent and sent back to Britain with the intention of infiltrating political networks critical of the Beijing regime.
The researcher was arrested in Edinburgh and his London flat is thought to have been searched by police. The second suspect was arrested in Oxfordshire.
Scotland Yard said in a statement: “Officers from the Metropolitan Police arrested two men on March 13 on suspicion of offences under section one of the Official Secrets Act 1911.
“A man in his thirties was arrested at an address in Oxfordshire and a man in his twenties was arrested at an address in Edinburgh. Searches were also carried out at both the residential properties, as well as at a third address in east London. Both men were taken to a south London police station and were released on police bail until a date in early October.”….
The alleged infiltration of parliament by a British citizen has prompted widespread alarm at Westminster and follows warnings by Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, that the Chinese Communist Party poses “the most game-changing strategic challenge” to the UK.….
Tugendhat is said to have only had limited contact with the arrested researcher, who was hired by someone else, and severed contact with him when he began running for the Conservative Party leadership in July last year. He therefore had no dealings with the suspect as security minister.
Luke de Pulford, of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), said: “It’s no surprise that he’d go after Tom. He’s been out front on China for years. In IPAC we have long suspected that something was badly wrong because there were consistent efforts from a hostile researcher to smear IPAC MPs and label them as extreme on China policy. Now it all makes sense.”
A Whitehall source added: “I’m pretty sure he [the researcher] turned some backbenchers from China hawks into being apathetic about Beijing. He was regularly complaining about a lack of nuance among China-sceptic MPs and seemed to have a particular issue with Iain Duncan Smith.”
Paddy McGuinness, the government’s former deputy national security adviser, described China’s alleged actions as both “reckless” and a “serious escalation” of espionage activities. He said: “The mask has truly slipped. This isn’t about China objecting to interference in their internal affairs as they so often claim. Rather they are messing in ours, with a casual disregard for our democracy and our sovereignty.”…….