Whatever their motives, Tory rebels are right – Huawei is a threat to our national security

The Chinese telecoms giant should not be trusted with critical bits of our communications infrastructure, writes John Rentoul

Data dust-up: another rebellion by MPs is on the cards (Reuters)

It was like Snickers being – briefly – renamed Marathon last year. The House of Commons returned to the old pre-Brexit politics: a government, with a majority, threatened by a rebellion of its own MPs on a subject that was nothing to do with Europe.

All the old themes were reworked. The rumblings of rebellion, from a range of semi-extinct volcanoes – former cabinet ministers emitting clouds of smoke and steam, warning about the threat to national security from letting Huawei, the Chinese company, help build the 5G network.

A bit of opportunistic positioning by the official opposition: a supposedly left-wing Labour Party making common cause with right-wing Tory rebels. It helps Labour that its spokesperson, Chi Onwurah, speaks with the authority of having been a telecoms engineer. She demanded to know why the government was taking such a risk with national security.

And then the denouement yesterday: a cabinet minister, in this case Oliver Dowden, the new digital, culture, media and sport secretary, at bay on the front bench, under attack from his own side. Dowden spent much of his time turned right round, addressing his comments to Iain Duncan Smith, David Davis and Liam Fox.

He offered concessions. The government would work towards shutting Huawei out of the network altogether, but he didn’t want to give a date. MPs who weren’t happy about Huawei would have another chance in a telecoms security bill, which he promised to bring to the house before the summer recess.

The rebels disdained them. Duncan Smith became stern. If he didn’t get a date, “it will be my purpose to move my amendment to a vote”, he said. So he did, and the last stage of the traditional, long-forgotten ritual took place. MPs voted, the rebels rebelled, and the government won.

Boris Johnson currently enjoys an effective majority in the House of Commons of 87 – the notional majority is 80, but in practice, the figure is higher because of the seven Sinn Fein MPs who do not take their seats. This afternoon, the prime minister’s majority was cut to 24, as 38 Conservative MPs rebelled against their whip.

That is the sort of thing that used to happen in the old days. “Government majority slashed,” the headlines would shout, and the government, although it might have adjusted policy under pressure from rebels, would sail on.

Even Tony Blair, with his 179-seat majority in 1997, suffered a huge rebellion of 47 MPs before the end of that year over a cut to lone-parent benefit. With more drama, he survived the vote on tuition fees by five votes in 2004; but it wasn’t until after the 2005 election, when his majority was cut to 66, that he finally lost a vote – on a bill to detain terrorist suspects for up to 90 days.

What will happen with Huawei now? It doesn’t look as if the issue will go away. Some Tory MPs loyal to the government are rude in private about the motivations of the rebels, most of whom would like to be ministers again. But the problem for Johnson is that they have a strong case: Huawei should not be trusted with critical bits of our communications infrastructure. As Davis said today, it is odd that the British intelligence services seem so confident that they can “mitigate” the threat, when the US, Australia and Japan seem to take a different view.

Dowden has now committed the government to another bill, and another chance for a rebellion. With the government’s majority cut to 24, it would take only another 12 Tory MPs breaking ranks to force a change of policy.

In the end, if anyone can remember those Marathon-bar days of pre-Brexit brinkpersonship, the government usually caves if it looks as if it is going to be defeated. I expect that further concessions will be forthcoming. Duncan Smith may even get his date for eliminating Huawei from the 5G network altogether.