Five Eyes spies play down split as ‘Huawei leak’ roils UK government
- UK PM urged to investigate who leaked decision about Huawei’s role in Britain’s 5G network from confidential meeting of her National Security Council
- Britain appears set to allow Huawei a restricted role in building parts of the network, as Chinese tech giant ‘welcomes report’
According to an article in The Daily Telegraph, the contents of which were not denied, the 10-member National Security Council (NSC) chaired by the embattled Prime Minister Theresa May agreed on Tuesday to allow Huawei access to noncore parts of the 5G system, but block it from all core parts where data is exchanged.
The report triggered fury among senior Tory MPs who urged May to investigate which member of her senior team leaked the conclusions of that confidential meeting and if the Official Secrets Act had been breached.
An official government announcement on Huawei is not due until next month, although the technical review has been completed.
“What I see playing out here is a discussion among all of us about the realities of where do you define sensitive networks. Where does that start and end?” Rob Joyce, senior cybersecurity adviser to the US National Security Agency told a UK government-sponsored summit in Glasgow on Wednesday.
