MPs are being put on alert after claims China has launched a series of cyberattacks on politicians.
Deputy PM Oliver Dowden is expected to make a statement in the House of Commons tomorrow about the mounting threat.
Mr Dowden will give more detail of the efforts to undermine UK democracy and point the finger at Beijing, according to the Sunday Times.
A small group of China hawks are said to have been called to a briefing by Parliament’s director of security Alison Giles in relation to the activity.
They included former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former minister Tim Loughton, crossbench peer Lord Alton and SNP MP Stewart McDonald.
The four are members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) pressure group which focuses on issues involving the increasingly assertive Asian power.
MPs are being put on alert after claims China has launched a series of cyberattacks on politicians
Deputy PM Oliver Dowden is expected to make a statement in the House of Commons tomorrow about the mounting threat
Sir Iain, Mr Loughton and Lord Alton were also subjected in 2021 to sanctions by Beijing in a retaliatory move after they highlighted China’s ‘gross human rights violations’.
Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron is also said to be planning to address a last-minute meeting of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs tomorrow evening.
Luke de Pulford, executive director of IPAC, told the paper: ‘About a year ago, the Belgian and French foreign ministries publicly confirmed [Chinese state] sponsored cyberattacks against our members.
‘Other countries have done the same privately. Beijing has made no secret of their desire to attack foreign politicians who dare to stand up to them.’
A Government spokeswoman declined to comment.
Mr Dowden is poised to give more detail of the efforts to undermine UK democracy and point the finger at Beijing (pictured, National People’s Congress session earlier this month)