MI5 has issued an espionage alert to MPs and peers warning that two people linked to the Chinese intelligence service are actively seeking to recruit parliamentarians.
The two, who operate as headhunters on the LinkedIn professional networking website aiming to obtain “non-public and insider insights”, MI5 said, are also targeting economists, thinktank staff and civil servants for their access to politicians.
The spy agency sent its warning about the two to Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker of the Commons, and his Lords equivalent, Lord McFall, on Tuesday morning, both of whom relayed its contents to MPs with a cover message.
In an email to peers, McFall said the individuals, linked to China’s ministry of state security spy agency (MSS), are “actively reaching out to individuals in our community”.
Their “aim is to collect information and lay the groundwork for long-term relationships, using professional networking sites, recruitment agents and consultants acting on their behalf”, he added.
Dan Jarvis, the security minister, confirmed that the alert has been sent out in a lunchtime Commons statement. “This activity involves a covert and calculated attempt by a foreign power to interfere with our sovereign affairs in favour of its own interests, and this government will not tolerate it,” he told MPs.
Jarvis said MI5 had warned that the espionage campaign was “being carried out by a group of Chinese intelligence officers, often masked through the use of cover companies or external headhunters”.
MI5 has previously warned about Chinese spies seeking to obtain information by using LinkedIn to recruit Britons working in sensitive areas. Posing as recruitment consultants, the agents, normally women, have sought to lure at least 10,000 Britons with potential job offers.
More details soon …
