UK urged to reconsider allowing Huawei to help build 5G network by US

Boris Johnson says decision will not imperil relationship with Trump administration

The US has urged Britain to look again at its decision to allow Chinese tech giant Huawei a limited role in the development of its next-generation 5G telecoms network.

Arriving in the UK for meetings with Boris Johnson and foreign secretary Dominic Raab, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said that Huawei’s presence in the system represents a “real risk” and insisted Washington would ensure its information is always shared via trusted networks.

But he stopped short of a direct attack on the decision, continuing what has been a generally muted response from the Trump administration to Mr Johnson’s defiance of Donald Trump’s demands to exclude Huawei.

Johnson himself assured the House of Commons that the move would not "imperil our relationship" with Trumps’ White House, despite a backlash from Tory MPs and US Republicans.

The prime minister, who spoke to Mr Trump by phone following the Huawei announcement on Tuesday, said the Government's decision would not damage the "extremely valuable" security co-operation with the Five Eyes alliance which includes the US.

He told MPs at Prime Minister's Questions: "I think that it is absolutely vital that people in this country do have access to the best technology available but that we also do absolutely nothing to imperil our relationship with the United States, to do anything to compromise our critical national security infrastructure, or to do anything to imperil our extremely valuable co-operation with Five Eyes security partners."

Speaking to reporters on his flight to London, Mr Pompeo said there was “a chance for the United Kingdom to relook at this as implementation moves forward”.

The UK government has said that Huawei will be limited to a 35 per cent share in “non-core” elements of the 5G network such as antennae and radio masts. And ministers aim to reduce this 35 per cent maximum as other suppliers’ products come on-stream in the years to come.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr Pompeo was referring to this plan to scale back Huawei involvement over coming years, or seeking a swifter and more fundamental rethink of the UK’s approach.

He told reporters: "Our view of Huawei is: putting it in your system creates real risk

"This is an extension of the Chinese Communist Party with a legal requirement to hand over information to the Chinese Communist Party. We’ll evaluate what the United Kingdom did."

And he added: "We will make sure that when American information passes across a network we are confident that that network is a trusted one.”

(AFP/Getty)

Ministers have insisted that the security of intelligence information will not be compromised by Huawei’s involvement in 5G, which will hugely increase mobile communications capacity and underpin services using artificial intelligence.

A meeting of the National Security Council heard on Tuesday that excluding the Chinese firm would impose delays of two or three years and cost the economy tens of billions of pounds, hitting efforts to improve UK productivity.

At a 90-minute meeting, defence secretary Ben Wallace is reported to have argued against the move, but was said by The |Times to have been a "lone voice".

Senior Tories including former party leader Iain Duncan Smith and ex-Brexit secretary David Davis have led protests from the backbenches.

And the former de facto deputy prime minister Damian Green suggested Mr Johnson could face his first rebellion on the issue when legislation permitting access to Huawei comes before the Commons.

"One of the things that frankly surprised me was the breadth of opposition to the current stance of the Government on the Conservative back benches," Mr Green told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We don't know yet, when push comes to shove and votes happen, how many people will actually put their heads above the parapet but it is very widespread."

Mr Trump has refrained from a Twitter outburst on the decision but officials in Washington said they were "disappointed by the UK's decision".

"There is no safe option for untrusted vendors to control any part of a 5G network," an official said.

The European Union also unveiled security guidelines for the next generation high-speed wireless networks that stop short of banning Huawei, in a further blow to the US campaign against the firm.

The US administration has consistently argued that giving Huawei a role in 5G could allow the Chinese a "back door" into the telecoms network through which they could carry out espionage or cyber attacks.

The clash comes at sensitive moment in US-UK relations, just as Mr Johnson is hoping to make rapid progress on a trade deal.