British MPs facing risk of espionage from China, MI5 warns

London – Britain’s external intelligence agency, MI5, has warned that British MPs and members of the House of Lords face a significant risk of espionage ‘from the Chinese state.’

Speaker of the House of Commons  Sir Lindsay Hoyle and his counterpart in the House of Lords, Lord McFall, have circulated a new "espionage alert" issued by the security services, BBC reported.

Writing to MPs, Sir Lindsay said Chinese state actors were "relentless" in trying to "interfere with our processes and influence activity at Parliament".

He said the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) was "actively reaching out to individuals in our community", and that they wanted to "collect information and lay the groundwork for long-term relationships, using professional networking sites, recruitment agents and consultants acting on their behalf".

The alert from MI5 says "false personas" approach targets to "work as freelance consultants authoring geopolitical reports".

It specifically identifies two LinkedIn profiles which it says are used on behalf of the MSS.

The alert says they act as "civilian recruitment head-hunters", recruiting individuals working in British politics for the MSS, and solicit "non-public and insider insights".

Other elements of espionage described in the MI5 alert include all-expenses paid trips to China, and payment for information through cash or cryptocurrency.

Targets are said to include "Parliament staff, economists, think tank employees, geo-political consultants and those working alongside [the government] including MPs and members of the House of Lords".

Former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the alert showed China was taking an "aggressive position" that "blows a hole through all of that ridiculous nonsense" about whether or not China was a threat to UK national security.

"We have to be much, much more vigilant," he said.

"Why is the government so unable to call China what it is, which is a persistent, continuing threat to Britain's national security.

"That is clear to every single member of the public… but somehow the government seems to think it isn’t that clear, he said, according to the BBC.