UK’s security service to advise MPs on the espionage threat from China and Russia
By Sean Rayment
MI5 will issue guidance to MPs for the first time to help protect them against espionage and foreign interference.
The disclosure comes just days after charges were dropped against a Westminster researcher accused of spying for China.
The security service will advise all parliamentarians and political staff — described as “high-risk individuals” — about the growing threat they face from hostile states and will suggest various safeguarding measures.
The guidance is expected to warn MPs and peers to be cautious about the motives of the people they hire and meet, and to think carefully before making connections on social media.
The advice, which security officials hope to publish in the next few weeks, is also likely to include a section on overseas travel and will warn individuals, for example, against leaving mobile phones and laptops unattended in hotel rooms.
The guidance will be released by the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA), a public-facing arm of MI5, and is intended to be “state agnostic.” However, officials have made it clear that they believe the main threat of foreign interference comes from China and Russia.
Politicians are separately being advised to opt in to a service provided by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a branch of GCHQ, which will alert them to any malicious activity on their electronic devices and warn them if they attempt to access any blacklisted sites.
Colonel Phil Ingram, a former Army Intelligence Officer and espionage expert, told National Security News that MI5 guidance was timely given the increasing threat posed by China and Russia.
He said: “The espionage threat from China and Russia in particular is growing, and it remains the role of MI5 to provide advice and guidance on how our critical national assets are protected.
“This goes beyond buildings and systems and now includes people. The overt side of MI5, the National Protective Security Authority’s role, is to provide that protective security advice. It is timely — if not a little late — that the threat from espionage is becoming more of a priority.”
Last week, an espionage case against Chris Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, an academic from Oxfordshire, collapsed.
The two men, who both previously taught English in the same region of China, were due to go on trial at the Old Bailey next month on charges under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1911 of collecting and passing on information that might be useful to the enemy.
The alleged plot and the arrests of Cash, 30, and Berry, 33, were originally revealed by The Sunday Times in September 2023. They were charged in April 2024 after an investigation by counterterrorism officers at Scotland Yard.
However, prosecutors told the court that the “evidential threshold” could no longer be met, and “not guilty” verdicts were entered on behalf of both men.
The decision to drop the case at the 11th hour has angered ministers and MPs, as well as police.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, previously told The Times that the collapse of the trial would send a green light to hostile states. “As Speaker, I take the security of this House incredibly seriously,” he said. “I believe this leaves the door open to foreign actors trying to spy on the House. This door must be closed hard.”
A lawyer for Cash said he was “entirely innocent” and should have been “congratulated rather than prosecuted” for his work exposing the risks posed by China. Cash added: “My arrest has destroyed my life and the career I loved.”
Berry’s lawyers said he had never had access to classified information or harboured pro-Beijing sympathies.
Dan Jarvis, the security minister, told MPs that the new National Security Act has replaced the OSA, removing its “unhelpful ‘enemy’ language.”
The case would have required a senior government security official — the deputy national security adviser — to stand in court and describe Beijing as an “enemy” at a time when Britain is seeking to increase trade and diplomatic ties with China.
Meanwhile, the government is seeking to reinstate extradition co-operation with Hong Kong, which was suspended five years ago over human rights concerns in the Chinese special administrative region.
Sir Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, has previously stated that the agency has disrupted “attempts at harming or coercing people” in the UK by Beijing, including individuals of Chinese heritage, and thwarted “threats aimed at our democracy.”
In early 2022, MI5 issued an unprecedented “interference alert,” naming Christine Lee, a UK-based solicitor, as an agent of the Chinese Communist Party seeking to influence parliamentarians. Lee denies the allegations.
The new MI5 guidance is likely to borrow from existing definitions drawn up by the intelligence services about those considered most at risk.
The NCSC website states: “From a cybersecurity context, you are considered a high-risk individual if your work or public status means you have access to, or influence over, sensitive information that could be of interest to nation-state actors.”
