Former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service Sir Richard Dearlove said there was an urgent “strategic security reason” for the Government to change its decision to grant Huawei access to the UK’s 5G infrastructure. There will be a meeting of the National Security Council on Tuesday were ministers expected to cancel purchases of any new Huawei 5G equipment. Ministers are also expected to remove all of the current Huawei 5G equipment in the UK by the mid-2020s.
Former MI6 chief Sir Richard added that blocking the Chinese firm made “good security sense”.
He said: “I think the relationship between the Chinese state and Huawei is absolutely clear cut.
“Huawei is not an ordinary international telecommunications company, it’s an intimate part of the Chinese state.
“And if you know anything about Chinese military strategy they talk about the fusion of civil and military capabilities and there is a close linkage undoubtedly between the Chinese military capability and Huawei.”
However, Huawei denies that it has secret links to the Chinese military, saying that these claims are “categorically untrue and groundless”.
But Sir Richard said the UK needed a “reset of the whole of our relationship” with China.
He remarked in an interview with Sky News that the current relationship between the two nations was “more aggressive”.
There is the fear now that if Britain bans Huawei from developing its 5G infrastructure then Beijing may respond with a cyber attack.
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“Huawei is a menace and not acting on it risks national security.
“Actions, however, have consequences and they cannot be discounted.”
Huawei has now asked for the British Government to delay its decision until after the next general election in 2025.
The telecommunications giant has written to Downing Street asking to meet with Boris Johnson’s senior adviser Sir Edward Lister.
There they hope to convince the UK Government that incorporating Huawei into the 5G network will not compromise Britain’s national security.