China spied on MPs emails and used UK elections data to target defectors
Chinese state-sponsored hackers tried to spy on MPs and peers’ emails and stole data from the electoral watchdog in a bid to target British democracy, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden has revealed.
MP critics of China also claimed they were targeted by “wolf warrior” agents attempting to impersonate them in conversations with other global politicians, and were themselves contacted by people claiming to be British ministers such as Tom Tugendhat.
Electoral Commission computer systems were meanwhile compromised between 2021 and 2022, with hackers extracting email and other data from the electoral register that Government security experts said was “highly likely” to be used by Chinese intelligence agencies for both “large-scale espionage” and the repression of critics in the UK, alongside other data sources.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) insisted that parliamentary security services successfully identified the attempted hack on MPs’ and peers’ email addresses before accounts could be compromised.
The Government also stressed Commission hack did not affect electoral processes, the rights of voters or electoral registration.
An unnamed state-affiliated “cyber entity” was to blame for the attack on the elections watchdog, while the Beijing-linked APT31 was responsible for targeting MPs and peers, ministers said.
Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron announced sanctions on two individuals and one company linked to APT31 in response as Mr Dowden said the UK “will not tolerate malicious cyber activity targeting our democratic institutions”.
Lord Cameron added: “It is completely unacceptable that China state-affiliated organisations and individuals have targeted our democratic institutions and political processes. While these attempts to interfere with UK democracy have not been successful, we will remain vigilant and resilient to the threats we face.
“I raised this directly with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and we have today sanctioned two individuals and one entity involved with the China state-affiliated group responsible for targeting our parliamentarians.
“We will always defend ourselves from those who seek to threaten the freedoms that underpin our values and democracy. One of the reasons that it is important to make this statement is that other countries should see the detail of threats that our systems and democracies face.”
Ministers however faced calls to go further from some of the politicians targeted.
A small group of politicians who are hawkish on China were called to a briefing by Parliament’s director of security, Alison Giles, in relation to the activity.
They include former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former minister Tim Loughton, crossbench peer Lord Alton and SNP MP Stewart McDonald, who are all members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) pressure group.
Sir Iain, a former Conservative Party leader, declined to comment on the briefing but used a press conference to reveal he had been targeted by a “wolf warrior” agent impersonating him in conversations with global politicians and claiming he recanted his views on Beijing.
Sir Iain said he was also concerned that documents relating to Hong Kong citizens “trying to get out” of the autonomous region may have been leaked after it emerged that there was a “spy wandering around” Parliament.
A Tory parliamentary researcher was arrested on suspicion of spying for China last year. Chris Cash, 28, was closely linked with Mr Tugendhat and was employed as a researcher by Alicia Kearns, chairwoman of the Commons foreign affairs committee. He has denied the claims.
Sir Iain said: “We need to be much stronger and tougher. And if you’re tough with people, the lesson they learned from the 1930s [is that] appeasement never works.
“If you’re strong, you tell them what’s wrong, and you tell them you’re not going to put up with it, then eventually they will probably back down. But if you don’t, they just keep taking advantage of you.”
Mr Loughton meanwhile said he had received a message on X, formerly Twitter, from people claiming to be Security Minister Tom Tugendhat as recently as yesterday claiming to have resigned from the Government. Mr Tugendhat was a prominent China critic as a backbencher.
“I think for all of us over that last three years, and various colleagues who aren’t here as well have had hacking attempts, a lot of impersonation. I’m constantly getting emails or tweets from [security minister] Tom Tugendhat saying he has resigned in disgust at the governance policy on such and such,” said Mr Loughton.
The MPs raised serious concerns that the details of Uighurs and Tibetans living in the UK with whom they have “associated with in confidence” may have been compromised by Chinese interference.
Sir Iain said “we should learn a lesson from the 1930s” that if you don’t stand up to a hostile state, they only become more hostile as he claimed Chinese aggression will affect the fibre of the UK, including schools, universities and infrastructure.
The West, and particularly the UK, has to “wake up to the fact that this is a threat to our very way of life”
He added: “We must now enter a new era of relations with China, dealing with the contemporary Chinese Communist Party as it really is, not as we would wish it to be.
“Today’s announcement should mark a watershed moment where the UK takes a stand for values of human rights and the international rules-based system on which we all depend.”
