Murdered Briton ‘not a spy’

A BRITISH businessman thought to have been murdered in China “was not an employee of the British government in any capacity”, the Foreign Secretary said yesterday.

William Hague issued the letter to the foreign affairs select committee after MPs questioned him about reports that Neil Heywood might have been an MI6 agent or passed information to the UK secret services.

Mr Heywood, 41, was “only an occasional contact” of the British Embassy in Beijing, where he attended “some meetings in connection with his business”, Mr Hague said in a carefully-worded statement.

But he did not specifically rule out the possibility that Mr Heywood, a family friend of a senior Chinese politician currently under suspension, could have had some form of relationship or contact with the Secret Intelligence Service.

Mr Heywood died in the city of Chongqing last November.