Britain’s Boris Johnson defeats lawmaker revolt on Huawei’s 5G role
- Tory rebels wanted to amend infrastructure bill to ensure ‘high-risk vendors’ – such as Chinese telecoms giant – are stripped out of networks by end of 2022
- Attempt failed, but group signals it will continue to pursue cause, calling vote a ‘strong first showing’
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday defeated his first party rebellion over a government decision to allow China’s Huawei to have a role in building Britain’s 5G phone network.
Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, has been caught in a stand-off between Washington and Beijing after the United States accused it of spying on Western secrets, allegations which the company has denied.
Britain decided in January to allow Huawei into what the government said were non-sensitive parts of the country’s 5G network, capping its involvement at 35 per cent. This angered the United States, which wants to exclude Huawei from the West’s next-generation communications systems and has urged Britain to rethink.
Some senior Conservatives shared the US’ unhappiness. They wanted Huawei eliminated entirely from Britain’s 5G networks by the end of December 2022.
The government tried to placate the rebels by saying it would work towards increasing the supply of 5G telecoms gear so operators would not need to use Huawei, but it refused to commit to any timetable to ban the Chinese company.