The partner of a sitting Labour MP is among three men who have been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, the Guardian understands.<\/p>\n
The Met police took the men into custody on Wednesday morning on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service, and as part of a wider investigation into national security offences related to China.<\/p>\n
Detectives from counter-terrorism policing London, which is leading the investigation, arrested a 39-year-old man in London, a 68-year-old man in Powys, Wales, and a 43-year-old man in Pontyclun, Wales. The police have not identified the men, who remain in custody.<\/p>\n
However, sources told the Guardian they included the partner of a Labour MP. A second person is understood to be the partner of a former Labour MP. The identity of the third and whether they have any links to parliament is unknown.<\/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 Commons statement, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, confirmed that 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 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 are searching what are understood to be residential addresses in London, East Kilbride in Scotland and Cardiff in Wales.<\/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
Commander Helen Flanagan, the head of counter-terrorism policing for the Met, 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
He added: \u201cThe government has been consistent and unambiguous in our assessment that China presents a series of threats to the United Kingdom.<\/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
Responding for the Conservatives, Alex Burghart, the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, referred to the Guardian report about two of those arrested being the partners of a sitting and former Labour MP, asking Jarvis if he could confirm this.<\/p>\n
Jarvis told Burghart he \u201cwill understand that there are very strict limitations in terms of what I can say about what is obviously now a live police investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, he hinted that those arrested were connected to MPs by saying that 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 Jarvis 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 because prosecutors could not obtain critical evidence from the 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The partner of a sitting Labour MP is among three men who have been arrested on suspicion of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-457155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}