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Boris Johnson to bow to rebels' demand for Huawei 5G network ban next year

On Tuesday, Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of the National Security Council at which a final decision will be made on Huawei's future as a supplier to the UK's 5G network - AFP
On Tuesday, Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of the National Security Council at which a final decision will be made on Huawei's future as a supplier to the UK's 5G network - AFP

Boris Johnson will bow to the demands of his backbench MPs on Tuesday by banning Huawei from the 5G network next year and targeting 2024 for stripping out all its existing infrastructure.

The Prime Minister was facing a major Commons defeat after being given an ultimatum by 60 Tory rebels to set an early date for the removal of the Chinese telecoms firm from the UK network.

But after an 11th-hour meeting with Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, on Monday, the rebels were confident that their wishes would be granted.

On Tuesday, Mr Johnson will chair a meeting of the National Security Council at which a final decision will be made on Huawei's future as a supplier to the UK's 5G network, followed by a statement to Parliament by Mr Dowden.

It will bring to an end more than a year of uncertainty over Huawei's role in Britain's mobile phone network, which began when Mr Johnson decided to review a decision by his predecessor, Theresa May, to allow the firm to bid for "non core" infrastructure such as phone masts.

On Tuesday, Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of the National Security Council at which a final decision will be made on Huawei's future as a supplier to the UK's 5G network - Reuters
On Tuesday, Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of the National Security Council at which a final decision will be made on Huawei's future as a supplier to the UK's 5G network - Reuters

A decision to ban Huawei from the network will further increase tensions with Beijing, which has warned that Britain will "bear the consequences" if it treats China as a "hostile" provider.

Diplomatic relations are already hugely strained after Britain offered three million Hong Kong residents a home in the UK because of China's decision to impose strict security laws on the former colony. On Monday, the Foreign Office predicted that 200,000 Hongkongers would take up the offer.

Huawei is viewed as a security threat because of laws in China that oblige private companies to hand over data to the government if required, and a US embargo on secure American-made chips being sold to the firm has increased the perceived danger.

On Monday, Mr Johnson was sent a letter by 60 Tory rebels, including former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, warning him that he must end Huawei's involvement in the mobile phone network "without unreasonable delay", with senior party members pushing for a total ban on new Huawei equipment by early next year.

If the rebels do not get their way, they will amend the forthcoming Telecommunications Security Bill, which will be introduced later this year. There are more than enough rebels to overturn Mr Johnson's 80-seat majority and effectively dictate policy to him by inflicting a major defeat over the Bill.

Senior Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee, was invited to a virtual meeting with Mr Dowden and the digital infrastructure minister Matt Warman to discuss the rebels' demands.

Writing in The Telegraph, Mr Tugendhat said: "The Government’s decision – rumoured to be no new Huawei kit from the end of the year and a plan to get the existing stuff out over this Parliament – would show that we're on the path to zero so many of us have called for."

Mr Tugendhat is the founder of the China Research Group, which wants a more distant relationship with Beijing and calls for a "new alliance of the world's democracies" to combat China's aggression.

Bob Seely, another of the rebels, said banning new Huawei equipment from the mobile network from early next year and an end date of 2025 for the removal of its 5G hardware would "work for most people".

Ryan McCarthy, the US secretary of the army, told the Royal United Services Institute on Monday: "The United States is watching this very closely and we are advising our allies to make informed decisions where possible and look at other options.

"It is truly something that could become a tremendous threat to security."

The former foreign secretary William Hague said in his weekly Telegraph column that Huawei is likely to be "the beginning of a very long march indeed" away from partnerships with Chinese companies.

Mr Hague suggested that other Chinese technology firms, such as the social media giant Tik Tok, will be banned by many countries and that the West is about to be hit by the reality of more expensive products and less trade as China is increasingly cut off.

Although BT, which relies heavily on Huawei for its infrastructure, has said it would be possible to strip out its 5G equipment from the network within five years, it said on Monday that it would be "impossible" to remove entirely 20 years worth of 2G, 3G and 4G equipment in less than a decade.

Huawei has argued that if the Government is prepared to wait 10 years to expunge its hardware from the network it cannot be motivated by concerns about national security.

Defence chiefs have drawn up proposals to base one of the new British aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth, in the Far East in an effort to counter the emerging threat of China, it was reported on Monday night.