MI5 has warned that a Chinese government agent has been working in parliament “to subvert the processes”, MPs have been told.
A letter was sent to MPs by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle who said MI5 warned him a woman called Christine Lee has been “engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the Chinese Community Party, engaging with members here at parliament”.
MI5 said she has been involved with MPs and hopeful MPs as well as members of the now-disbanded all-party parliamentary group, Chinese in Britain.
Labour frontbencher and former minister Barry Gardiner has been named as an MP who accepted donations from the Chinese woman, and he confirmed her son was working for him but resigned today.
He told Sky News he has been liaising with MI5 “for a number of years” about Ms Lee “and they have always known, and been made fully aware by me, of her engagement with my office and the donations she made to fund researchers in my office”.
Mr Gardiner added: “Steps were taken to ensure she had no role in either the appointment or management of those researchers.
“They are also aware that I have not benefitted personally from those donations in any way. She ceased funding any workers in my office in June 2020.”
He said MI5 has assured him funding Ms Lee provided to him was not through “improper” means.
Mr Gardiner added that her son had been working for him as a diary manager but he resigned earlier on Thursday and MI5 said they “have no intelligence that shows he was aware of, or complicit in, his mother’s illegal activity”.
Leading Tory Iain Duncan Smith, who China has placed sanctions on for speaking up against its treatment of the Uyghurs, brought the letter up in the Commons on Thursday.
He said: “I understand that Mr Speaker has been contacted by MI5 and is now warning members of…
Source : skynews
