Lords could cripple PM’s Huawei 5G plans

BORIS JOHNSON’S plans to allow Huawei into the UK’s 5G network could be dealt a crippling blow tomorrow under a plan to ban firms from investing in broadband if they have poor human rights records.

Tory rebels in the House of Lords are backing a cross-party amendment to the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill which regulates the installation of broadband in leasehold flats.

The measure is backed by the Liberal Democrats while Labour peers are understood to be preparing to back it if the Government does not go part of the way towards accepting it.

If the amendment is passed it would create a human rights threshold for firms wanting to supply equipment for use in UK broadband infrastructure.

Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications company, has been accused of facilitating Beijing’s persecution of Uighur Muslims, with a million estimated to be interned and millions more under heavy surveillance.

The amendment’s supporters argue that the interconnected nature of global digital supply chains means that allowing Huawei technology to be installed could implicate Britain in human rights abuses against Uighurs.

One source said that if the amendment was passed the Government would be unlikely to overturn it in the Commons after dozens of Tory MPs voted against the Bill in March, potentially inflicting a knockout blow on Huawei’s plans to help build the UK’s 5G network.

The amendment is backed by Lord Alton of Liverpool, a cross-bencher, Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, the former Tory cabinet minister, and Lord Adonis, the former Labour cabinet minister. Lib Dem peers will support it while Labour peers Lord Hain and Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws are expected to speak in favour of it.

Lord Blencathra, who as David Maclean was a Commons chief whip, is also expected to speak in favour of it. Lord Alton told The Sunday Tele

graph: “Along with all the national security and defence implications of a company like Huawei entering our communications infrastructure, we also have got to have some regard for the human rights threshold. It is inconceivable that in the Seventies and Eighties we would have given such easy access to the Soviet Union knowing all that we did about its outrageous abuse of human rights in Siberia – and yet this is surely directly comparable.”

Supporters are “hopeful” of Labour front bench backing. One source pointed out that Labour MPs backed a similar amendment in the Commons earlier this year, saying it would give the party a chance to “champion human rights in foreign policy”.

David Davis, the Tory MP, said it would be “crippling” for Huawei if it passed, adding: “It ought to be the end of Huawei and 5G [in the UK].”

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, added that the Government would be “sunk” if Labour backed the amendment.

Ministers hope Labour will not support the amendment because it risks delaying broadband roll-out in flats.

They are gambling that Labour would prefer to keep its powder dry in the fight over Huawei in the Telecommunications Bill due to be debated in the Commons in coming weeks. A government source played down a rebellion, saying that Lord Alton’s amendment was “a bit of nonsense”.

“It is very unlikely there will be a Government defeat on Monday,” the source said. “The idea that you would have a separate human rights standard for telecoms in blocks of flats is plainly not what anyone wants.”

A Huawei spokesman said: “We supply world-leading telecoms equipment to mobile and broadband network operators in 170 countries.

“The telecoms operators own and operate these networks. We comply with all laws and regulations in countries where we work.”