Senior ministers have defended plans to allow Chinese telecoms firm Huawei to help build the UK’s 5G network - despite warnings from furious Tory MPs that the move shows “poor judgement” by Theresa May.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith led a string of backbenchers who declared that the company’s close links to the Communist regime in Beijing made it a real cyber spying risk and jeopardised Britain’s relations with Washington.
But Chancellor Philip Hammond and digital minister Margot James both pointed out that decisions would be based on advice from British intelligence officials that it was possible to “manage” any potential security risk.
Hammond, who is due to attend an investment conference in China this week, even suggested cost savings were part of the reason for using Huawei rather than other firms.
HuffPost UK also understands that intelligence chiefs made plain their views in a meeting of yesterday’s National Security Council (NSC), when ministers discussed the proposal to allow Huawei a limited role in building ‘non-core’ 5G infrastructure such as antennae.
Amid calls by some ministers for an inquiry into the leak of the NSC meeting decision, Labour said that national security details should “not used as political ammunition in a Tory Party civil war”.
Ciaran Martin, the head of the National Cyber Security Centre, an offshoot of the GCHQ intelligence agency, gave a strong hint that tight arrangements were in place to maintain security even if the Chinese firm was given a limited role.
“There’s a lot more to 5G security than just whether particular companies get particular contracts,” Martin told a cyber security conference in Scotland.
But US Homeland Security adviser Rob Joyce struck a different note when he stressed that the Trump administration would not allow the Chinese firm even the limited access the UK was considering.
“We’re not going to - in the US - have Huawei in our most sensitive networks,” he said.
And the backlash at the proposal - leaked to the Daily Telegraph - was strong from several Tory MPs who feared that even a restricted role for Huawei was a dangerous move.
Duncan Smith said: “It puts the [UK-US] special relationship under strain. I consider her [the PM’s] judgement on this to be very poor. I would call a reconsideration of decision, given the nature of the risks it implies.”
Commons defence select committee chairman Julian Lewis said in parliament that the firm was “intimately linked with the Chinese government” and its “deeply hostile” intelligence services.
Foreign affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat tweeted that the move put at risk the ‘Five Eyes’ security links between the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Australia has already refused any Huawei role in its telecoms infrastructure.
“Allowing Huawei into the UK’s 5G infrastructure would cause allies to doubt our ability to keep data secure and erode the trust essential to ‘Five Eyes’ cooperation. There’s a reason others have said no,” Tugendhat said.
However, in evidence to the Treasury select committee on Wednesday, the Chancellor insisted using the company could be cost effective while not compromising security.
“It’s essential that we get the balance right. It’s very much in our interests that that infrastructure is rolled out quickly and effectively with good value for money of the equipment we use,” Hammond said.
“Where our security experts tell us that there are ways in which we can maintain security, whether it’s networks or installations, that avoid the most economically costly outcomes, then we should look very carefully at those options.”
On some estimates, an outright ban on Huawei would cost the UK £7bn in extra costs. Labour MP Jo Platt said: “You cannot keep the country safe on the cheap. Labour will put security first and promote the British digital industry.”
The NSC, chaired by the PM, approved a paper on Tuesday setting out the recommendation. Some ministers present expressed their concerns and asked questions, but none outright opposed the idea, one source said.
Culture secretary Jeremy Wright will publish the results of a major review into the 5G security issue in coming weeks, but his digital minister Margot James told HuffPost UK that she “disagrees strongly” with any suggestion that national security would be compromised.
“As part of our plans to provide world class digital connectivity, including 5G, the government have conducted an evidence based review of the supply chain to ensure a diverse and secure supply base, now and into the future,” James said.
“A final decision on the future of Huawei as a supplier to our telecoms industry has not yet been made. The PM and her close advisers, who include the National Cyber Security Centre, (NCSC) will make a decision in due course. Huawei have submitted their products and processes to a robust layer of additional scrutiny in concert with the NCSC for a number of years now.
“Although Huawei are established suppliers to the UK’s telecoms industry, their products and services are not generally deployed at the core of the network. The director of the NCSC has made clear that there are a number of strategies in place that mitigate and manage risks associated within the supply chain.”
She also tweeted: “The National Cyber Security Centre is respected the world over, their advice is that we can manage/minimise any risk Huawei might pose to telecoms infrastructure and Theresa May is absolutely right to act on that advice.”
NCSC chief Martin earlier told BBC Radio 4 that the review would include “detailed explanations of the security framework that we are going to put in place to make sure we have sufficiently safe 5G networks”.
He also told the Scottish cyber conference that the ‘Five Eyes’ alliance was robust. “We can and have coped with certain differences in the past… We have different remits,” he said.
The Wall Street Journal described the news as “a victory for Huawei in its fight against a US campaign to block the use of its 5G equipment in the networks of US allies”.
Several ministers are furious at what they see as the way the NSC meeting was ‘spun’ by some of May’s critics. It is highly unusual for any leaks to occur from the meeting as senior MI6, MI5 and GCHQ officials attend the meetings.
One minister said privately that it was “beyond belief” that Cabinet ministers would leak such sensitive information, particularly in a misleading way.
Labour’s Jon Trickett said: “This Tory Government has once again proved incapable of coming together to protect the public interest.
“Critical issues of national security should be handled with utmost care, not used as political ammunition in a Tory Party civil war.
“The Government should launch a full investigation to get to the bottom of these leaks, otherwise it risks further extinguishing what little authority it has left.”