{"id":329857,"date":"2026-03-05T07:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329857\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T07:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:21:10","slug":"labour-mps-partner-among-three-arrested-in-uk-on-suspicion-of-spying-for-china-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329857\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour MP\u2019s partner among three arrested in UK on suspicion of spying for China \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The partner of a sitting Labour<\/a> MP is one of three people arrested by UK counterterror police on Wednesday over claims they assisted China\u2019s<\/a> intelligence service.<\/p>\n

David Taylor, the husband of the Labour MP Joani Reid, was arrested by detectives from counter-terrorism police in London on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service, and as part of a wider investigation into national security offences related to China.<\/p>\n

They also arrested a 68-year-old man in Powys, Wales<\/a>, and a 43-year-old man in Pontyclun, Wales. The police have not identified the men, who remained in custody.<\/p>\n

Reid, the MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven, who is a member of the home affairs committee, said: \u201cI have never seen anything to make me suspect my husband has broken any law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not part of my husband\u2019s business activities and neither I nor my children are part of this investigation, and we should not be treated by media organisations as though we are. Above all I expect media organisations to respect my children\u2019s privacy.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018It\u2019s a fortress\u2019: Is China building a mega embassy or a spy nest in London?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never been to China. I have never spoken on China or China-related matters in the Commons. I have never asked a question on China-related matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as I am aware I have never met any Chinese businesses while I have been an MP, any Chinese diplomats or government employees, nor raised any concern with ministers or anyone else on behalf of, even coincidentally, Chinese interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The matter was raised in the House of Commons on Wednesday by the Conservative<\/a> MP Greg Stafford who suggested that the MP concerned \u201csits on a select committee that would have information which is sensitive, maybe even secret\u201d and will have visited defence sites across the UK.<\/p>\n

The police said the arrests were part of a \u201cproactive investigation\u201d and that there was no \u201cimminent or direct threat to the public\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Dan Jarvis, the United Kingdom\u2019s<\/a> security minister, confirmed the arrests related to China and said he could give no further details so as not to risk the police investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can also confirm this relates to foreign interference targeting UK democracy,\u201d Jarvis said. \u201cIf there is proven evidence of attempts by China to interfere with UK sovereign affairs, we will impose severe consequences and hold all actors involved to account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if the arrested partner of the serving MP had a parliamentary pass, Jarvis said he could not say. However, the House of Commons speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, then intervened to say that they did not.<\/p>\n

As well as searches at the addresses where the arrests were made, counter-terrorism detectives were searching what are understood to be in London<\/a>, Scotland<\/a> and Cardiff.<\/p>\n

Security services have been investigating foreign interference in UK democracy, including attempts to obtain information on policymaking and interfere with sovereign affairs.<\/p>\n

Helen Flanagan, the head of counter-terrorism policing for London\u2019s Metropolitan Police<\/a>, said: \u201cWe have seen a significant increase in our casework relating to national security in recent years and we continue to work extremely closely with our partners to help keep the country safe and take action to disrupt malign activity where we suspect it.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s arrests are part of a proactive investigation and while these are serious matters, we do not believe there to be any imminent or direct threat to the public relating to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing MPs, Jarvis said British officials had formally protested to their Chinese counterparts in London and Beijing about the allegations \u201cto raise our strong concerns\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has been consistent and unambiguous in our assessment that China presents a series of threats to the United Kingdom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain deeply concerned by an increasing pattern of covert activity from Chinese state-linked actors targeting UK democracy. This involves attempts to obtain information on UK policymaking and interfere with our sovereign affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jarvis said people should realise that foreign powers would not just target politicians but those close to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of those who are involved in the wider political ecosystem are in play here, and that is an important message for people in this house and outside of this place to understand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Previous cases of alleged spying within parliament have caused deep concern in Westminster, prompting warnings of a serious \u201csystemic challenge\u201d to British democracy.<\/p>\n

Last year it emerged that prosecution cases against two men with parliamentary links accused of spying for China had been dropped<\/a> because prosecutors could not obtain critical evidence from the British government that Beijing represented a \u201cthreat to the national security of the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n

Spying charges against Christopher Cash (30) and Christopher Berry (32) were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service, which initially said only that the \u201cevidential standard\u201d was no longer met a month before a high-profile trial had been due to start.<\/p>\n

Cash and Berry denied the charges. At the time of the alleged offences Cash was a researcher specialising in China working for the Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, and Berry, a friend, was a researcher based in China. They were accused of passing on information about Westminster that was ultimately sent to Cai Qi, a member of China\u2019s ruling politburo. \u2013 The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The partner of a sitting Labour MP is one of three people arrested by UK counterterror police on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[114,42,1193,99,6238,43,9036,40,38,41,39,303,4381],"class_list":["post-329857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-china","tag-headlines","tag-labour-party-uk","tag-london","tag-metropolitan-police","tag-news","tag-scotland","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}