Cyber threat is too great to risk it, says former top spy

THERESA MAY’s decision to review the Hinkley Point deal was applauded yesterday by a former head of counterterrorism, who warned against giving control of a nuclear power plant to the Chinese.

Chris Phillips, who headed the police’s National Counter Terrorism Security Office, told The Sunday Telegraph it was “crazy to give away a piece of critical national infrastructure to the Chinese when the world is in such a state of flux”.

He said ceding any control of a nuclear plant would be a mistake.

Mr Phillips, who advised the Home Office until 2011, when Mrs May was still Home Secretary, said: “The Chinese have been spying on us for years and have battalions of cyber hackers in China who are trying every day to gain a hold of our critical infrastructure and some of our companies.

“If they had access to a nuclear power station, they could turn the electricity off whenever they wanted. Nuclear power is part of the critical national infrastructure that should be protected at all costs – because the risks are so great.”

Nick Timothy, Mrs May’s joint chief of staff, has previously raised concerns over Chinese involvement in the deal. In a blog post last year, he said MI5 had concerns about Hinkley Point, stating that China’s intelligence services “continue to work against UK interests at home and abroad”.

One security expert warned that freezing China out of the deal could actually increase cyber attacks.

Professor Anthony Glees, head of the University of Buckingham’s Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, said China might retaliate if its planned 33.5 per cent stake in the £18 billion plant was turned down on security grounds.

He said: “It will be seen by China as insulting and potentially hostile and may well lead to reprisals.

“They have the capability to carry out cyber attacks on us and this may give them the motive.

“This could be the trigger for them to hack us even more in the sense that they’ve got nothing to lose. However friendly they are towards us, they are well known for their intrusive intelligence gathering.”