The partner of a sitting Labour MP was among three men arrested by British police on Wednesday, media reports say.
Police said the three were arrested on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service, an offense under section 3 of the National Security Act 2023, which strengthened powers to counter foreign interference. Authorities confirmed the country involved was China. The men, aged 39, 43 and 68, remain in custody. Their names were not released, in line with UK practice.
UK media identified one of those arrested as David Taylor, the husband of Joani Reid, the Labour MP for East Kilbride. Reid told papers including the Times and the Telegraph she had “never seen anything to make me suspect my husband has broken any law.” She said she was not involved in her husband’s business activities, that neither she nor her children are part of the investigation, and that she has never been to China or spoken on China-related matters in the House of Commons.
Asked in parliament about the reports, Security Minister Dan Jarvis declined to give further details. He said in a later statement: “We will always challenge any country, including China, that attempts to interfere with or undermine the integrity of our democratic institutions.”
Last November, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency warned MPs that China had been using headhunters on LinkedIn and other covert operatives to recruit and compromise officials. That rare alert came two months after a political controversy over the collapse of an espionage case against two British men accused of passing sensitive information to China.
The new arrests pose a challenge for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has sought to reset ties with China after years of mistrust and became the first UK leader in eight years to visit Beijing as he pursued closer economic relations. China’s embassy in London said it had lodged a protest with the British side, condemning what it called attempts to “fabricate facts and concoct so-called ‘espionage cases’ to maliciously slander China.”
Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko
