China’s spies are relentlessly targeting the UK Parliament, MI5 warned yesterday as it issued an unprecedented espionage alert.
In a move that makes a ‘mockery’ of Labour’s attempts to cosy up to the hostile state, the agency took the unusual step of naming two female recruiters.
The women, controlled by Chinese intelligence services, sent ‘thousands’ of messages to MPs, aides and parliamentary staff to trick them into divulging ‘sensitive information’.
The Security Service warned MPs and Lords that Shirly Shen, of the Internship Union, and Amanda Qiu, of BR-YR Executive Search, had been ‘prolific’ in attempts to ‘interfere with our processes and influence activity at Parliament’.
Targets are said to include politicians who have held roles at the highest level.
The pair spent years building contacts ‘at scale’ with scores of people working in key roles in Government and Parliament to infiltrate the heart of British democracy, the Daily Mail has learned.
The MI5 alert comes after Labour was accused of making the UK a ‘soft target’ after the collapse of the prosecution of ex-parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash and his friend Christopher Berry, who were accused of passing secrets to Beijing.
In the latest spy scandal, those targeted by the fake headhunters include a former staff member for Dame Priti Patel, ex-Tory special adviser James Price and someone working for Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, who is Kemi Badenoch’s head of policy.
The Daily Mail understands that the accused pair led large, well-resourced teams in China pumping out thousands of messages, making attractive financial offers for ‘insight’ on Government policy and sensitive matters such as sanctions and military capability.
The two women boasted on LinkedIn of their links to major firms and ability to nurture ‘exceptional talent’, as well as establish international internships.
Ms Qiu had built an extensive list of contacts online, indicating she was in contact with civil servants at the Treasury, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, a Welsh Parliament official and consultants at Westminster public affairs agencies.
Others listed as contacts were former special advisers to a Conservative chancellor and an Education Secretary, and members of think-tanks, including the Tony Blair Institute. A senior party official at Reform UK, a former Liberal Democrat candidate, a senior aide in the House of Lords, Amazon employees and staff at the likes of University College London and the London School of Economics were also listed.
Ironically, Ms Qiu posted on LinkedIn just last week: ‘When you’re focused on your own mission, the noise from the outside world can hardly distract you.’
Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti yesterday accused the Government of putting up ‘the white flag’ after learning one of her former staff members had been contacted by Ms Shen, who claimed she was ‘looking for a political consultant to cooperate’.
The staff member said the message ‘looked suspicious’ and they ‘wrote it off as a spam account’.
Dame Priti said: ‘Clearly, China is not letting up. They are resorting to every single method available to them to continue to undermine our Parliament and our democracy.
China sees this Labour Government as weak, spineless and feeble, and they see Britain with the white flag up.’ Another victim, Mr O’Brien, said: ‘[I] can confirm they have tried to contact my staff. UK universities are cancelling research because of Chinese pressure but Labour cancelled the law designed to stop this.
‘China spied on MPs but Labour collapsed the trial. When are we going to wake up?’ In the alert circulated by Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, MPs were told Chinese state actors are ‘relentless’ in trying to ‘interfere with our processes and influence activity at Parliament’.
He warned China was ‘actively reaching out to individuals in our community’ and wanted to ‘collect information and lay the groundwork for long-term relationships, using professional networking sites, recruitment agents and consultants’.
Security minister Dan Jarvis told the Commons: ‘China is attempting to recruit and cultivate individuals with access to sensitive information about Parliament and the UK Government.
‘This activity involves a covert and calculated attempt by a foreign power to interfere with our sovereign affairs in favour of its own interests, and this Government will not tolerate it.’
He announced an action plan including funding for security programmes, security briefings for political parties, plans to tighten rules on political donations and working with networking sites.
But senior Tories pressed the Government to place China as a top-tier security threat and reject plans for a Chinese super embassy in London. The Prime Minister’s spokesman said it will challenge China ‘where we must’.
A Chinese embassy spokesman said accusations of espionage were ‘pure fabrication’.
