China syndromeGrowing Tory Opposition to Boris Johnson’s Huawei Decision

David Davis, a leading Conservative MP and a former Brexit Secretary in the government of Theresa May, has warned that allowing Chinese technology giant Huawei to build some of the infrastructure for the U.K. 5G communication network could be seen as “the worst decision made by a British prime minister.”

“In fact, given our future dependence on so-called fifth generation or 5G technology, this failure is worse than Philby and his fellow spies Burgess, Maclean, Cairncross, and Blunt all rolled into one,” he wrote in the Mail on Sunday. [Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, John Cairncross, and Anthony Blunt – called the “Cambridge Five” because they were all undergraduates at Cambridge University in the early 1930s – were Soviet spies who delivered to Moscow some of the most sensitive U.K. and U.S. military, intelligence, and scientific secrets from the late 1930s to the early 1950s].

The Huawei move represented the “worst intelligence decision since MI6’s recruitment of Kim Philby,” Davis repeated, adding: If the government allowed Huawei access to the U.K. 5G infrastructure, then “We are handing the keys to large parts of the country over to China.”

Davis urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to reconsider to government decision from three weeks ago, which allowed Huawei access to the U.K. communication infrastructure. It is not too late to “switch on this completely,” Davis added.

The government this week is expected to introduce legislation in Parliament which will allow Huawei to operate in the 5G area, but there is an opposition to the legislation from a growing number of Tory backbenches.

Davis confirmed he would be putting pressure on Johnson to change his mind.

“If things start to go wrong in a decade or two decades time, the history books will blame this government because they missed an opportunity to change direction.

“This is the biggest decision Boris Johnson is facing. This is the ground on which future wars will be fought.”

Former Tory Cabinet minister Owen Paterson described the government’s approach to Huawei as “incomprehensible.”

The government, worried about the growing opposition to its Huawei decision, is likely to put down a “statutory instrument” instead of introducing primary legislation, which means that there will be limited options for debate in the Commons.

One senior Conservative MP said, however, that doing so could leave Johnson “facing defeat” if it were to go to a vote.

Other Tory MPs agreed: “A very large number of the [Conservative] Parliamentary party are nervous about this. I would doubt the government wants to see a defeat at such an early stage.”

Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the government’s “decision to rush this through” was “incredibly disappointing.”

He said: “The government should have taken time and taken soundings. Boris Johnson has been badly advised by the civil service.

“It was probably a decision made off the back of a one-and-a-half page note - which I hear Dominic Cummings [Johnson’s top political adviser] is quite fond of these days.”

In an article two weeks ago, Sir Duncan Smith wrote:

I believe that the best course for the Government, given that it has inherited the existing involvement of Huawei, is to plan to clear the firm out of our systems as quickly as possible. Defence of the realm is the Government’s number one priority, and this includes cyberspace. There can be no room in our systems for companies such as Huawei (Ian Duncan Smith, “We’ll Never Make Huawei “Safe.” It Must Be Stripped from U.K. Networks As Quickly As Possible,” The Telegraph, 9 February 2020).

Prominent backbench Huawei opponent Bob Seely has warned that Johnson should not present the 5G decision to Parliament as a “fait accompli” in the form of a statutory instrument.

He said: “We are concerned it will backfire on the government if it is seen as trying to get it through under the cover of secondary legislation.

“It’s simply a debate Parliament has not yet considered.”

The growing Tory opposition to the government’s Huawei decision has been emboldened by news that President Donald Trump referred to Johnson’s decision to allow Huawei to take part in Britain’s 5G roll-out as a “betrayal.”

It has been reported that in a phone call between Trump and Johnson following the U.K. government decision, Trump was “apoplectic,” using language that made those present in Johnson’s office “uneasy.”