Tories forced to drop MP candidates after MI5 warned they could be ‘spying for China’

The Conservative Party was forced to drop two of its potential candidates to become MPs after MI5 warned they could be ‘spying for China’, a minister has admitted.

The Times reported on Wednesday (13 September) that the UK security service contacted the Tories about two people of concern in 2021, amid fears they had links to China’s United Front Work Department - a body charged with influencing global policy and opinion.

The pair were subsequently removed from the party’s central list of would-be election candidates, with a source telling the newspaper: “It was made very clear that they posed a risk. They were blocked from the list. They weren’t told why.”

Maria Caulfield, the government’s health minister, has since addressed the revelations - insisting that the Conservatives acted “swiftly” after receiving the intelligence from MI5.

She told Times Radio: “I think whichever party is in government, there will always be those who are trying to target it, either to get information or to influence. The candidates who the Conservative Party were warned about - swift action was taken and they were removed from the list. They are not standing for election.”

It comes just two days after it emerged that a researcher at the UK Parliament had been arrested on suspicion of “spying for China”. The male suspect, who is said to be in his late 20s, reportedly had links to several Tory MPs who are “privy to classified information.”

Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command are investigating the man, who has insisted he is “completely innocent”. In a statement released on Monday (11 September) by his lawyers Birnberg Peirce, he said: “To do what has been claimed against me would be against everything I stand for.”

He was first arrested back in March alongside another man in his 30s, held on suspicion of offences under Section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, which punishes offences that are said to be “prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state”.

However, the alleged security breach was only revealed over the weekend by The Sunday Times - prompting outrage from ministers who were left in the dark.

The arrest prompted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to confront Chinese premier Li Qiang at the G20 Summit on Sunday (9 September), with a Number 10 spokesperson saying he “conveyed his significant concerns about Chinese interference in the UK’s parliamentary democracy”.

However, Sunak is under pressure to go further and designate China a threat to the national security of the UK. The latest revelations are likely to only further fuel debates about the UK’s relationship with the country in East Asia.

Commenting on the situation, a Conservative Party spokesperson said: “When we receive credible information regarding security concerns over potential candidates we act upon them.”