THE PRIME Minister is ready to defy US demands and give Huawei access to Britain’s 5G network today.
Boris Johnson will finalise plans to give the Chinese telecoms giant a role in the construction of the digital network, ignoring US warnings.
Boris will meet with the National Security Council this morning to make his final decision and give Huawei the go-ahead.
He is almost certain to give Huawei access, but could restrict access to “non-core” elements of the roll out, such as aerials.
Cabinet sources told HOAR: “It looks like a done deal”.
The move will anger the US, who have pulled at all stops in trying to strong arm the PM into excluding Huawei from the 5G, including threats from President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to block intelligence sharing or a US-UK trade deal.
Mr Pompeo is set to fly to London later this week.
Boris said the UK was perfectly capable of protecting its own security.
He said: Theres no reason why we shouldnt have technological progress here in the UK, but also protect our security interests.
We are going to come up with a solution that enables us to achieve both those objectives, and thats the way forward.
Tory foreign affairs committee chair Tom Tugendhat called for an urgent question over Huawei in the House of Commons yesterday, warning “if we get it wrong, we will pay for it for many many years”.
He added:”Effectively we’ll have taken back control from Brussels at the risk of only handing it over to Beijing”.
There are fears that Huawei, who are heavily influence by the Chinese government, could use their access to the 5G network to spy on the public and gain intelligence on the UK.
Australian politicians banned Huawei from participating in their own 5G mobile infrastructure because of espionage fears.
Former MI6 Boss Sir John Sawers said the US was trying to play hardball, but would not ultimately restrict intelligence access from the UK.
