Boris to revisit decision on Huawei this month

BORIS Johnson yesterday paved the way for reversing his decision to let Huawei help build Britain’s 5G mobile network.

Toughening his rhetoric about the Chinese technology firm, he said he would protect critical national infrastructure from ‘hostile state vendors’.

The Prime Minister announced in January that Huawei would be allowed a role in 5G despite intense pressure from the US to block the firm on security grounds.

His decision followed a report from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre that concluded the concerns could be mitigated.

But the NCSC launched a review of the issue in May when Washington imposed sanctions on Huawei that could affect its ability to operate in Britain.

Mr Johnson will consider the centre’s latest assessment and is expected to make an announcement this month. Yesterday he said he would not get drawn into anti-Chinese sentiment, adding: ‘On Huawei, the position is very, very simple. I do want to see our critical national infrastructure properly protected from hostile state vendors, so we need to strike that balance.’

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace admitted yesterday he was ‘unhappy’ that the UK was reliant on the Chinese firm. He told the Commons defence committee: ‘We should have not allowed other people to run away with those technologies and we should not have allowed ourselves to be so dependent.’

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said that American sanctions were likely to have an impact on the viability of Huawei contributing to the UK’s 5G network.