MI5 warned Tories that MP hopefuls could be spies

Two potential candidates dropped after the intelligence service said they could be Chinese agents.

Details of the alleged attempt to infiltrate the party emerged after a Tory parliamentary researcher was arrested on suspicion of spying.

MI5 warned the Conservative Party that two of its potential candidates to become MPs could be spies for China.

The Times has been told that the Security Service contacted the party about two individuals in 2021 and last year and advised that they should not be on the central list of candidates.

MI5 is said to have raised concerns that the individuals had links to the United Front Work Department, a body charged with influencing global policy and opinion.

The individuals were blocked from the list, which is used as a pool to pick candidates for by-elections and general elections.

“It was made very clear that they posed a risk,” a source said.

“They were subsequently blocked from the candidates’ list. They weren’t told why.”

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “When we receive credible information regarding security concerns over potential candidates, we act upon them.”

Details of the alleged attempt to infiltrate the party emerged after a Tory parliamentary researcher was arrested on suspicion of spying.

Chris Cash, 28, was the director of an influential China policy group at Westminster co-founded by the security minister. He was also employed as a researcher by Alicia Kearns, chairwoman of the Commons foreign affairs select committee.

Mr Cash, who studied in China before working at Westminster, released a statement through lawyers on Monday insisting that he was “completely innocent”.

He said the allegations were “against everything I stand for”, adding that he had spent his career “trying to educate others about the challenge and threats presented by the Chinese Communist Party”. China called the claims malicious slander.

Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, has warned that the Chinese Communist Party poses “the most game-changing strategic challenge” to Britain. He said in July last year: “One of the things that is very striking is that they are prepared to invest in cultivating people at a local level, potentially, and at the outset of their political careers.”

In July, the Commons intelligence and security committee published a report saying China was targeting Britain “prolifically and aggressively”, but government departments did not have the “resources, expertise or knowledge” to tackle the threat.

Last year, the Security Service took the unprecedented step of issuing an alert to MPs naming Christine Lee, an Anglo-Chinese lawyer, as an agent of influence carrying out “political interference activities on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party”.

Ms Lee, 59, who denies wrongdoing and is suing MI5, had donated almost £500,000 to Labour MP Barry Gardiner, the former shadow international trade secretary. Ms Lee’s son also worked in Mr Gardiner’s office.

Tory candidates are vetted by the party. They are subject to criminal record checks and an “in-depth” due diligence report, and are interviewed to assess their political judgment, life experience and integrity.

A Tory party source confirmed that in the past, the Security Service had given a “nudge” if it had had concerns about ­candidates.

Part of MI5’s mandate is to offer both physical and personnel protective security to businesses and other organisations, including those across the political spectrum. It is an advisory role and it cannot make decisions about the employment of individuals or their involvement in the political arena.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is under pressure from Tory MPs who have been sanctioned by Beijing to formally declare China a threat to Britain. The government has described China as an “epoch defining challenge”, but backbenchers want it to designate the country a hostile state.

Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative Party leader who has been sanctioned, said: “Even if they don’t want to call China a threat, the threat exists. A bite from a Rottweiler hurts just as much even if you call it a ­Pekinese.”

The Times