Britain’s domestic spy service, MI5, warned lawmakers on Tuesday that China’s intelligence services are posing as recruiters to target people who work in Parliament, just weeks after the collapse of a case against two British nationals accused of spying for Beijing.
In an alert, MI5 said that the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) was using websites like LinkedIn to build relationships with parliamentarians, in an effort to “collect sensitive information on the UK to gain strategic advantage.”
Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, circulated the MI5 alert to Members of Parliament (MPs) and warned that Chinese state actors were “relentless” in their efforts to “interfere with our processes and influence activity at Parliament.” He listed two headhunters known to use LinkedIn profiles to “conduct outreach at scale” on behalf of Beijing.
“Let me speak plainly: this activity involves a covert and calculated attempt by a foreign power to interfere with our sovereign affairs in favour of its own interests, and this government will not tolerate it,” Security Minister Dan Jarvis told Parliament. The Chinese embassy in London dismissed the claims as “pure fabrication and malicious slander.” It said it had urged Britain to “stop this self-staged charade of false accusations,” which it said was undermining relations between the countries.
MI5’s warning comes after prosecutors last month abruptly abandoned a case against two British men charged with spying on MPs for Beijing, claiming that the government’s evidence was missing a “critical element” which meant there was “no other option” but to collapse the case.
That “critical element,” prosecutors claimed, was the government’s refusal to call China an “enemy” or “national security threat.” Because the two men – Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, an academic – were charged under the Official Secrets Act 1911, they could only be prosecuted if the information they passed on was useful to an enemy. Because the British government had not labeled China an “enemy,” prosecutors said they had to drop the case.
Downing Street said no minister, member of the government or special adviser was involved. Instead, Prime Minister Keir Starmer blamed the previous Conservative government, which was in power at the time of the alleged offenses, for wording its policies “very carefully” so as not to describe China as an enemy.
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