UK minister urges greater access to intelligence for political parties

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UK political parties should be offered greater access to intelligence about potential donors, candidates and staff to prevent infiltration by spies, a cabinet minister has urged.

Penny Mordaunt, leader of the House of Commons, wrote to Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, last month calling for a new intelligence- sharing framework between the security services and the UK’s main parties, according to people familiar with the matter.

Her intervention came after Westminster was shaken by allegations of Chinese espionage this summer, when it emerged that a parliamentary researcher with links to Tory MPs had been arrested in March under the Official Secrets Act.

The episode raised questions about the vetting of parliamentary staff, but also prompted concerns about the vulnerability of political parties — seen by some security officials as the weak underbelly of the UK’s democratic institutions — to hostile actors.

Some government insiders fear parties have too little access to sensitive information about potential donors, candidates and other individuals working closely with their representatives and officials.

Mordaunt has been working with officials to identify new mechanisms for data sharing between intelligence officials and political parties, the people with knowledge of the matter said.

Some government figures argue that the intelligence support offered to parties is not as strong as that extended to the parliamentary security department that vets staff applying for passes to the Westminster estate, or the Cabinet Office team that vets staff in government requiring security clearance.

However, other officials dispute the suggestion that parties need additional support, insisting that the security assistance provided is sufficiently robust.

Last month it was reported that MI5, the domestic intelligence agency, issued a warning to the Conservatives in 2021 that two of its candidates hoping to become MPs could be spies for the Chinese state. The two individuals were blocked from the Tory candidates list following the intervention from the security services, according to The Times.

Last year MI5 also warned MPs that a Chinese agent had been “engaged in political interference activities” in Westminster on behalf of the Chinese Communist party, including donating more than £420,000 to one Labour parliamentarian.

The explosion of online disinformation, some of it seeded by cyber networks sponsored by hostile states, has also triggered alarm in Whitehall.

Mordaunt commissioned work in June to help combat the issue, including establishing deeper links between intelligence officials and the House of Commons Library, which provides research briefings for MPs, according to people familiar with the matter.

The defending democracy task force, which the government established last November, is also working to reduce the risk of foreign interference on the UK’s democratic processes, institutions and society.

Tugendhat chairs the group, which brings together ministers, intelligence officials, mandarins, law enforcement agencies, parliamentary representatives and executives from councils and the devolved administrations.

The Home Office said: “The UK has some of the world’s most robust security measures which are kept under constant review. We do not comment on security arrangements.”