MPs have been issued with a warning over spying threat from a woman believed to be attempting to influence UK politicians on behalf of China.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, in a letter sent to MPs, warned that Christine Lee had been “engaged in political interference” for the Chinese Communist Party and sought to lobby parliamentarians including through a former all-party parliamentary group (APPG).
The letter stated: “I should highlight the fact that Lee has facilitated financial donations to serving and aspiring parliamentarians on behalf of foreign nationals based in Hong Kong and China.”
The Speaker added: “This facilitation was done covertly to mask the origins of the payments. This is clearly unacceptable behaviour and steps are being taken to ensure it ceases.”
Labour MP Barry Gardiner has confirmed he had received donations from Lee and said he has been liaising with intelligence “for a number of years” about her.
“They have always known, and been made fully aware by me, of her engagement with my office and the donations she made to fund researchers in my office in the past,” said Mr Gardiner.
The MP also revealed that Ms Lee’s son had been acting as his diary manager – but had resigned on Thursday morning. Mr Gardiner said MI5 “have no intelligence that shows he was aware of, or complicit in, his mother’s illegal activity”.
The former Labour frontbencher said Ms Lee stopped funding any workers in his office in June 2020 and he had not “personally benefited from those donations in any way”.
The MI5 security warning – details of which were first published in The Sun on Thursday – named Ms Lee as a solicitor suspected to have been “knowingly engaged in political interference activities” in the UK.
Senior Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith raised the issue in the Commons on Thursday and called for an overhaul of the accreditation process “because it’s clearly too lenient”.
Sir Iain said the warned circulated by the Lord Speaker is “warning members of parliament that there has been an agent of the Chinese government active here in parliament, working with a member of parliament, obviously to subvert the processes here.”
The former Tory party leader told MPs: “This is a matter of grave concern.”
He added: “I am one of those who has done a lot to help fleeing Hong Kong Chinese. Here in the UK we have names and numbers of people. And that leaves me worrying some of these have been accessed by such an individual. These would be their lives and families at risk.”
Human rights campaigner Luke de Pulford told The Independent: “It’s not a surprise to us. There’s been suspicions of a very close relationship between the Chinese Embassy and figures in parliament for a long time. It just goes to show that democracy can be subverted by this kind of thing.”
Mr de Pulford lent his support to Sir Iain’s call for a root and branch check of all everyone working in MPs’ offices. “I think we need to make it clear what interests people working for MPs have,” Mr de Pulford said.
The Independent has contact Christine Lee’s office for comment.
