By MI5 warns MPs of Chinese agent infiltrating parliament
MPs have been warned by Mi5 that a Chinese government agent has been working in parliament to “subvert the processes”.
Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith told the House of Commons that the speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has written to MPs to let them know that he has been contacted by MI5 over the matter.
In the letter, the speaker told MPs that 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.”
It is thought that she gave donations to politicians, with funding coming from foreign nationals in China and Hong Kong.
He added that she had been involved with the now disbanded all-party parliamentary group, Chinese in Britain.
Iain Duncan Smith is currently under sanctions by Beijing for criticising human rights abuses in the Xinjiang province.
The former frontbencher said: “I understand that Mr Speaker has been contacted by MI5 and is now warning members of parliament that there has been an agent of the Chinese government active here in parliament working with a Member of Parliament, obviously to subvert the processes here.
“I say, as a Member of Parliament who has been sanctioned by the Chinese government, that this is a matter of grave concern.”
He demanded that she was deported, saying: “How can it be that an agent of a foreign, despotic and despicable power that is hell-bent on reducing many of those people into penury it seems.
“How can they put somebody in Parliament, this Mother of Parliaments, and then that individual have nothing done to them other than they are not allowed in Parliament. This is surely not good enough.”
Commons Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans said he could not comment on security issues.
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