Top Tories Pressure Johnson Over U.K.’s ‘Addiction’ to Huawei

(Bloomberg) --

Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a growing rebellion from leading members of his Conservative Party over the decision to allow Huawei Technologies Co. to help build the U.K.'s next-generation telecommunications networks.

Former party leader Iain Duncan Smith led a chorus of prominent Tories demanding the government commit to reducing the Chinese company's involvement in 5G networks to zero by 2023, and said failing to do so would be like allowing the Nazis to build Britain's national radio system during wartime.

Ministers plan to legislate to restrict so-called high-risk vendors, including Huawei, to non-core parts of the network and to 35% overall.

“It's like getting somebody off the addiction to heroin,” Duncan Smith said during a debate Wednesday on the security implications of Huawei. “The establishment in the U.K. has found itself somehow locked in this Huawei process and we need to break them free.”

Though the outcome of the debate, in a side chamber of Parliament, is non-binding, the strength of feeling among the upper echelons of Johnson's party will be worrying for the prime minister. Getting his wider legislative program through may be more difficult if there is Tory disunity, though an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons gives him a lot of leeway.

The angry backlash also comes as Johnson faces growing pressure from the U.K.'s security allies, especially the U.S., over the Chinese company. Officials from President Donald Trump's administration have urged Johnson to reverse his decision over claims that Huawei is an arm of the Chinese Communist Party and its involvement in 5G could enable spying.

A group of U.S. senators also wants to remove preferred investment status for countries that use the Chinese company's equipment.

U.S. Senators Push Investment Scrutiny of Allies Using Huawei

On Wednesday, senior Conservatives accused the government of “kowtowing” to the Chinese government, saying the decision threatens the U.K.'s alliance with the U.S. at the very time they need to strike a trade deal after Brexit.

“Whatever we think about our security preparations, if our allies don't trust us, that undermines the alliance,” said Tom Tugendhat, who also leads Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. “I fail to understand why government from Beijing is better than from Brussels.”

In response, the government reiterated its position that Huawei and other high-risk vendors could be incorporated without jeopardizing network security, though it shares the overarching goal of reducing their involvement to zero -- subject to the availability of alternatives in the supply chain.

“We are not naive about Huawei nor its relationship to the Chinese state,” digital minister Matt Warman said. “We are not and we will never put anything other than national security at the top of our agenda.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Olivia Konotey-Ahulu in London at okonoteyahul@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Thomas Penny

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