Any other move would leave us in digital slow lane

Nobody could accuse me of being a politician who is soft on national security. Leaf through the past decade of Daily Telegraph’s and you’ll be hard-pressed to find an MP more committed to protecting our people and keeping the UK safe.

That’s why I was instinctively sceptical about letting Huawei build some elements of the UK’S nextgeneration communications network.

It is that commitment to the UK’S safety and security that led to me fully supporting the decision by the Prime Minister and his National Security Council to make our communications more secure, our nation safer and our economy stronger.

By classifying Huawei as a high-risk vendor, we are essentially excluding it from any parts of our 5G and full-fibre networks that are critical to security – you will not see Chinese kit being installed at sites such as military bases. That’s one of the reasons the security services say this arrangement will have no impact on vital intelligence sharing with our Five Eyes allies.

Nor will Huawei, or any other high-risk vendors, be allowed to work in sensitive locations, such as nuclear power stations. And on the rest of the network, Huawei’s involvement will be capped at 35 per cent. So nobody will ever be solely reliant on Huawei.

Many will ask why, if Huawei cannot be trusted with full access, we let them in at all. The answer is twofold.

First, our security services are confident this partial ban removes all risk.

The strict rules imposed yesterday will not merely mitigate potential downsides, but actively improve the security and resilience of our critical telecoms infrastructure.

Second, consider the consequences of a complete ban. The damage to our economy, to businesses, and to our ability to communicate swiftly and securely if we allowed ourselves to fall further behind other nations. Rapidly creating a 5G network gives us a chance to put the UK at the cutting edge of the world economy.

We could try to build it without Huawei. But the truth is, companies in the UK, the US and other friendly nations cannot deliver what we need.

The lack of other suppliers capable of delivering, combined with the fact that Huawei has a substantial presence in our existing infrastructure, means a total ban would set us back years and cost billions of pounds more.

It would put the brakes on our economy, at a time when we could be putting our foot on the accelerator, leaving us stuck in the digital slow lane.

If I had any lingering doubts about the wisdom of granting Huawei a role in our 5G network, I would not – could not – have supported doing so.

Working with our world-leading security services, we have shaped a strategy that will protect and enhance our economy and our national security for decades to come.

Priti Patel has served as the Home Secretary since July 2019

‘If I had any lingering doubts about granting Huawei a role, I would not – could not – have supported doing so’