Huawei ‘covert campaign to manipulate MPS’
THE former MI6 agent behind a dossier on Donald Trump which alleged links to Russia has contributed to a 70-page intelligence report accusing Huawei and the Chinese regime of running a sophisticated operation to manipulate peers and MPS. Huawei dismissed the claims.
Sources said they believed the company was the victim of US propaganda to keep it out of Britain’s 5G network.
The report was paid for by Andrew Duncan, a US film producer, who hired Christopher Steele and his company Orbis Business Intelligence to assist.
Mr Steele, a former senior MI6 officer who ran its Russia desk, was the author of the dossier on President Trump that alleged links – denied by the president – to Russia and claimed Moscow possessed a compromising sex tape. The Government is under intense pressure from the US to jettison Huawei from its future 5G network. Last night, the Chinese ambassador warned there will be “consequences” if the UK pulls the plug on Huawei as ministers consider bringing forward the deadline to remove all traces of the company from the 5G network. With Boris Johnson expected to announce that telecoms companies will be banned from buying new Huawei equipment from 2022, Liu Xiaoming claimed doing so would dent investor confidence in Britain.
The Daily Telegraph understands that the Government is also looking at bringing forward the cut-off date for removing existing Huawei equipment from 2029 to as early as 2025. The Telegraph understands that the allegations include a claim that Huawei ran a “covert” campaign to influence opinion in its favour that targeted senior figures. The report is understood to allege that fake radio stations, based abroad, were set up and senior figures invited on to panel discussions and interviews with the aim of encouraging them to support Huawei.
A Huawei spokesman said: “We categorically refute these unfounded allegations, which do not bear scrutiny and are regrettably the latest in the longrunning US campaign against Huawei.”
Among high-profile individuals named in the report understood to have denied being targeted or influenced was Sarah Wollaston, the former Tory MP who previously chaired the powerful Commons liaison committee.
She told The Telegraph she had no knowledge of any covert PR campaign and the only contact with Huawei she could recall was an offer made via an intermediary to sponsor an event to mark the 40th anniversary of the select committees system. She rejected it, saying: “If they tried to influence me, they didn’t get very far.” Separately, Lord Clement-jones, a Lib Dem peer, said there would have been no need to target him as he sits on Huawei’s international advisory board. “It’s all a fantasy,” he told The Guardian.
Sir Kenneth Olisa, the Lord Lieutenant of London, Sir Mike Rake, the former chairman of BT and John Suffolk, the former Government chief information officer turned Huawei’s head of global security, were also allegedly named in the report, according to the Daily Mail. They all strenuously denied the claims.