Exclusive:SNP MP Stewart McDonald calls for new measures to protect parliament as Rishi Sunak confronts china over spy allegations

Stewart McDonald warned policy around China could now have been disrupted by the alleged spy.

A Scottish MP has called for new measures to protect parliament as Rishi Sunak confronted China’s premier after the arrest of a parliamentary researcher on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

The 28-year-old researcher was arrested in Edinburgh, along with another man, by officers on March 13 on suspicion of spying for Beijing. He is believed to have links to several Conservative MPs.

These include security minister Tom Tugendhat and foreign affairs committee chairwoman Alicia Kearns, prompting claims in Westminster the Chinese Communist Party is attempting to secretly influence British policy.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confronted China’s premier over his country’s “unacceptable” interference in British democracy after the arrest of a parliamentary researcher on suspicion of spying. Dan Kitwood/PA Wire

It comes just over a year after MI5 accused Christine Lee, an anglo-Chinese solicitor of seeking to improperly influence parliamentarians on behalf of China’s ruling Communist party. Previously hailed by Theresa May for helping Chinese-British cooperation, she was the founder of the non-profit group called the British Chinese project.

The incident prompted warnings from Stewart McDonald, the SNP MP for Glasgow South that Westminster must act to better protect itself, as well as the wider institutions of the UK.

Now the Prime Minister has raised his concerns with Li Qiang at the G20 summit in India on Sunday, with the summit escalating as the news of the arrests under the Official Secrets Act emerged.

Mr Sunak, who has faced criticism from some senior Conservatives of seeking a relationship with a China they see as increasingly a threat, met Mr Li on the margins of the international summit in New Delhi on Sunday morning.

Downing Street said Mr Sunak “conveyed his significant concerns about Chinese interference in the UK’s parliamentary democracy”.

Mr Sunak cited his confrontation with Mr Li as an example of the benefits of his policy of engagement rather than “shouting from the sidelines”.

The Prime Minister told broadcasters he “raised a range of different concerns that we have in areas of disagreement”.

“And in particular my very strong concerns about any interference in our parliamentary democracy, which is obviously unacceptable,” he said.

In a sign of the UK’s Government difficulty in responding to China, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk later to correct himself for initially using more severe diplomatic language in an interview on Sunday morning.

He told Sky’s Trevor Phillips show: “The Prime Minister has been very clear when it comes to China it is an epoch-defining threat … challenge, forgive me … so of course we have got to take it extremely seriously".

As the UK Government sought to control its message, MPs from the across the chamber condemned China, with Mr McDonald warning now was the time to act.

He said: “Parliament needs to have a conversation about how it steels itself against foreign interference. We need to start talking about this in broadest possible terms, and start actually mapping out a strategy to strengthen parliament resilience against hostile state interference.

“This is the second case of a successful CCP agent in the last parliamentary session, how many times does this need to happen before something changes?”.

The former defence spokesperson for the SNP, Mr McDonald also called for the name of the person arrested to be made public, claiming MPs needed to know if they had dealt with someone who may have been passing on information to a hostile state.

He said: “It’s clearly in the public interest for the name to come out, members of parliament need to be able to audit to see if they've met with this individual, if offices had meetings with them in and to what extent.

“This is somebody who allegedly has been acting on behalf of a foreign power and parliamentarians need to know if they’ve been a target. If so, to what extent has parliamentary debate been subverted or manipulated?

“Given there will be a feeding frenzy until the name is actually known, it’s in everyone’s interests that the feeding frenzy is avoided”.

Mr McDonald pointed to the risk it could pose to Government legislation, pointing to the genocide debate, slave labour, and even the energy bill as recently as last week.

He said: “The reason this is so important, when we have so much legislation going through parliament that concerns itself with the China debate, clearly parliament proceedings have quite successfully been targeted by the CCP.

“Our constituents deserve to know, and our MPs deserve to know, that our debate around China isn’t being manipulated by the CCP, a hostile state.

“We are talking about legislating in the interests of our constituents, and we need to have as full an idea as possible the extent to which the influence of the campaign has been successful.

The senior SNP MP also claimed he wasn’t surprised by the revelations.

He said: “I’m not surprised that it’s happened and I doubt it will be the last case of its kind.

“We’ve allegedly had this one, we’ve had the previous one, these are the only ones we know about.

“I don’t want to go all reds under the bed but I'm not surprised in the slightest this is happening”.

Labour’s shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said not describing China as a threat is “naive” but argued that economic ties with Beijing could bring benefits.

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “There are areas where I think that economic relationship can be a positive one and actually might over the long-term be a positive thing.

“But you can’t treat it in the same way, especially when you have got these appalling and shocking allegations today.”

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, one of the party’s most prominent China hawks, warned of a “deepening threat” being posed by the country.

Sir Iain said: “This story gives the lie to the Government’s attempt not to see China as a systemic threat.

“Time for us to recognise the deepening threat that the CCP under Xi now pose. What price was Cleverly’s kowtow visit to Beijing?”.

One of the suspects, a man in his 30s, was detained in Oxfordshire on March 13, while the other, in his 20s, was arrested in Edinburgh, Scotland Yard said.

Both were held on suspicion of offences under Section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, which punishes offences that are said to be “prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state”.

“Searches were also carried out at both the residential properties, as well as at a third address in east London,” a statement from the force said.

Both men were held at a south London police station before being bailed until early October.

Mr Tugendhat is said not to have had any contact with the researcher since before he became security minister in September last year.

Ms Kearns declined to comment, adding: “While I recognise the public interest, we all have a duty to ensure any work of the authorities is not jeopardised.”