Theresa May defies security warnings of ministers and US to allow Huawei to help build Britain's 5G network

Huawei will be given limited access to help build the UK's 5G network
Huawei will be given limited access to help build the UK's 5G network Credit: Telegraph

Theresa May has given the green light to a Chinese telecoms giant to help build Britain's new 5G network despite warnings from the US and some of her most senior ministers that it poses a risk to national security.

The National Security Council, which is chaired by the Prime Minister, agreed on Tuesday to allow Huawei limited access to help build parts of the network such as antennas and other “noncore” infrastructure.

Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary, Gavin Williamson, Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, International Trade Secretary, and Penny Mordaunt, International Development Secretary, were said to have raised concerns about the approach.

The decision is likely to anger the US, which has banned Huawei from its government networks and put pressure on other partners in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance – the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada – to do the same.

Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, warned it would cause the UK's allies to "doubt our ability to keep data secure and erode the trust essential to FiveEyes cooperation". 

"There's a reason others have said no,"  he said. "It is unwise to co-operate in an area of critical national infrastructure with a state that can at best be described as not always friendly."

It comes as Jeremy Fleming, the head of GCHQ, warns on Wednesday that rogue states are threatening the British way of life with hacking and cyber attacks.

Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary
Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary

In a speech in Glasgow, where all five members of the world’s largest intelligence cooperative appear together for the first time in the UK, Mr Fleming will talk about the risk from the “unprecedented” scale of cyber threats, and warn that the technological revolution is “exposing us to increasing complexity, uncertainty and risk”.

He will say: “It brings unprecedented challenges for policymakers as we seek to protect our citizens, judicial systems, businesses – and even societal norms.”

Alex Younger, head of MI6, has previously said Britain needs to decide how “comfortable” it is with Chinese-owned companies having involvement in its telecoms infrastructure.

Ciaran Martin, the chief executive of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre – part of GCHQ – has previously said he is “confident” Britain can manage the risk posed by Huawei. The security services are said to believe that the risks can be minimised.

Chinese companies are legally obliged to cooperate with the state’s intelligence agencies, a principle that has raised significant concerns in the West. The US, Australia and New Zealand have all barred Huawei from supplying key elements of their telecoms infrastructure. Canada is still reviewing its position. Last year New Zealand became the latest country to bar a local network from using Huawei’s 5G gear.

 Huawei Founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei 
 Huawei Founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei  Credit:  FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP

Huawei denies having any ties to the Chinese government. However, critics point out that Ren Zhengfei, its founder, was in the country’s army and joined the Communist Party in 1978. There are questions about how independent any large Chinese company can be.

Mr Fleming will also reveal for the first time GCHQ is sharing secret intelligence with banks, companies and the public to provide them with early warning and advice on counter measures to “detect, disrupt and fix” attacks by rogue nations and cyber criminals.

“We have made it simple for our analysts to share time-critical, secret information in a matter of seconds,” he says. “With just one click, this information can be shared and action taken.

“In the coming year, we will continue to scale this capability so – whether it’s indicators of a nation state cyber actor, details of malware used by cyber criminals or credit cards being sold on the Dark Web – we will declassify this information and get it back to those who can act on it.”

He will say GCHQ’s “unique insights into the structural vulnerabilities of the internet” has already enabled HMRC to move from being the 16th most phished brand globally, to the 146th.

Questioned on BBC, Mr Martin refused to confirm the decision on Huawei but added: "I am confident ministers will reach a decision that will provide for the safer 5G networks that we need."

He warned that there were more fundamental risks than Huawei including the threat of cyber hacks by states such as Russia and North Korea and high volume sophisticated attacks from cyber criminals.

Pointing to research on the risk to people's passwords, he said: "Those are the things we have to get after. There's a whole set of threats and risks I am confident we are helping people get on top of what they care about most."

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