Boris survives Tory rebellion over Huawei
38 Conservative MPs vote against government amid 5G security fears
‘We should avoid the risk’
BORIS Johnson survived his first major rebellion since the General Election yesterday when 38 Tory MPs voted against the Government over Huawei’s involvement in Britain’s 5G network.
Senior Tories had claimed the Prime Minister was putting national security at risk by allowing the Chinese firm access to UK infrastructure.
They attempted to limit the tech giant’s access by tabling an amendment seeking to ban ‘high-risk vendors’ from the system after 2022.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden tried to persuade the rebels not to revolt by pledging to work to ensure no such high-risk vendor is in the 5G mobile phone network in future.
But after he refused to set a date for guaranteeing when Huawei will be out completely, 38 Tory MPs rebelled. Although the Government won the vote with a majority of 24, the size of the revolt is a sign of the challenge facing ministers later when they try to push through legislation.
The rebels are concerned that the Government’s decision to allow Huawei to supply ‘non-core’ elements of the 5G network could jeopardise security because of the firm’s ties to the Chinese state. There are widespread fears across the Tory party that the decision could give China a ‘back door’ to spy on the UK’s telecoms network.
The White House has banned Huawei from US telecoms networks and has been highly critical of the Government’s decision, which came despite intense lobbying from America.
In the Commons, Tory critics were led by former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith. He said the rebels were ‘genuinely concerned’ about Huawei, which he described as being ‘essentially almost completely owned by Chinese trade unions controlled by the state’.
He said: ‘The reality is that when it comes to security versus cost, my view is security wins every single time because I worry when we start compromising security.
‘If defence of the realm is our number one priority then this becomes demi-defence of the realm and I am not prepared to put up with that.’
Tory former trade secretary Liam Fox urged the UK to ‘avoid the risk’ by not using Huawei rather than seeking to mitigate it. He said: ‘In order to achieve greater trade with China, we do not need to sacrifice our national security by including Huawei as part of that risk.’
Critics of the Government’s approach also included former Cabinet ministers Damian Green and David Davis, Commons foreign affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat and Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs.