When it comes to Huawei and 5G, we should listen to our spooks

The decision is a question of whose interests Boris Johnson wants to serve, writes James Moore

The best tech or a security threat? Huawei is once again at the centre of a heated debate (Reuters)

The Americans have been exerting a suffocating full-court press on the British over the vexed issue of Huawei and its involvement in this country’s 5G mobile network.

They’ve made their position very clear. They want the Chinese company out. Officials have gone as far as to say that allowing it access would be “nothing short of madness” while warning that it could put intelligence sharing at risk.

Huawei has, of course, become caught up in Donald Trump’s trade war with China, serving as something as a proxy when it comes to taking lumps.

But, to be fair, the US is not alone among the anglophone “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance, which also features Canada, New Zealand and Australia, in having reservations about the company and its alleged links to the Chinese state.

For its part, the UK mobile industry, badly wants Huawei to be allowed to stick around (it’s slated to be allowed to supply masts but not to be involved in much more sensitive network cores). For a start, I’ve been told Huawei’s kit is cheaper and better than that of the two alternative providers, Nokia and Ericsson.

If it’s cut out, it would also take time and an awful lot of money to replace the infrastructure that is already there, throwing a real spanner into the UK 5G works. A two-year spanner that would leave Britain lagging well behind the US at a time when its economy needs all the help it can get.

I was told by one of the networks that it had conducted its own detailed assessment of Huawei and found nothing untoward.

“We would put our business at risk if we thought our network was being used to snoop on customers. There is no sign that it is,” is what my source said.

Playing devil’s advocate, you could, of course, point to a financial incentive for not finding any problems.

But here’s the killer. The spooks and their techies, who are employed by this country to make an assessment with this country’s interests in mind, say that while there are risks, they can be managed.

In doing that, they could actually be said to be sticking their necks out. It would, after all, be very easy for them to draw in breath before saying “too risky, best listen to the Americans”. But they haven’t done that.

Amid high controversy and ministerial sackings, a cabinet committee voted narrowly in the Chinese company’s favour last year.

But, of course, we now have a new administration and the person whose views really count, Boris Johnson, a man who has a vested interest in keeping the Americans onside given how badly he wants to secure a trade deal with the country, wasn’t in government at the time.

This is what he said during an interview on BBC Breakfast: “The British public deserve to have access to the best possible technology. We want to put in gigabit broadband for everybody. Now if people oppose one brand or another then they have to tell us what’s the alternative.

“On the other hand, let’s be clear, I don’t want, as the UK prime minister, to put in any infrastructure that is going to prejudice our national security or our ability to cooperate with Five Eyes intelligence partners [the UK, Canada, the US, New Zealand and Australia].”

According to no less than the head of MI5, the role slated for Huawei shouldn’t do that. That being the case, if the British public is to be able to access the best possible tech, as Johnson says they deserve, Huawei should stay.

That leaves us with the question of whose interests come first? Britain’s or America’s? Over to you Mr Johnson.