PM says solution will allow technological progress but not jeopardise US relationship

Boris Johnson has signalled that he wants Huawei to be deployed in British 5G mobile networks in defiance of US objections and widespread concern from party colleagues that doing so would create a long-term surveillance risk.

The prime minister said he would unveil a compromise plan to restrict the Chinese company’s role in 5G, although it has to be accepted by senior cabinet ministers at a crunch meeting of the national security council (NSC) on Tuesday.

Priti Patel, the home secretary, heads the sceptical ministers, whose numbers are also said to include Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, but others in Westminster say they are mounting “a rearguard action” that will ultimately make little difference.

On the eve of one of his government’s first major decisions since his election win, Johnson said that the “way forward” was to have a system that “delivers for people in this country the kind of consumer benefits that they want through 5G technology”.

But the prime minster added that it “does not in any way compromise our critical national infrastructure, our security, or jeopardise our ability to work together with other intelligence powers around the world”.

The expectation is that the UK will allow Huawei to supply 5G equipment, which phone companies Vodafone and BT say is more advanced and cheaper than its rivals – but with a string of restrictions aimed at placating Washington.

Sources believe that Huawei will be designated a high-risk vendor and subject to a series of controls such as a market share cap and a ban on supplying 5G technology to sensitive parts of the public sector and strategically important sectors.

But an emergency Commons debate highlighted the scale of unhappiness amongst Conservative ranks, following an urgent question from the Conservative backbencher Tom Tugendhat. He told MPs that allowing Huawei to supply 5G technology would “nest a dragon” in the heart of the UK’s “critical national infrastructure”.

Q&A What is Huawei and why is its role in 5G so controversial? Show Hide Fast-growing Huawei is arguably China’s first global multinational. The Shenzhen-based company makes mobile phones, base stations and the intelligent routers that facilitate communications around the world. But its success increasingly concerns the US, which argues Huawei is ultimately beholden to the Chinese Communist party and has the capability to engage in covert surveillance where its equipment is used. Huawei is by some distance the world’s largest supplier of telecoms equipment with an estimated 28% market share in 2019. It was also the second largest phone maker in 2019, after Samsung and ahead of Apple. But Australia banned Huawei from 5G in 2018, with its spy agencies declaring they were worried the company could shut down power networks and other parts of its infrastructure in a diplomatic crisis. Trump banned US companies from working with Huawei last year and has strenuously lobbied others to follow suit, venting “apoplectic fury” in a phone call to Boris Johnson after the UK agreed to allow the Chinese company into 5G. The company had successfully targeted the UK early on. It has supplied BT since 2003 and gradually expanded to the point where it agreed to create a special unit in Banbury, known as the Cell, where the spy agency GCHQ could review and monitor its software code. Vodafone is another key customer. Britain’s intelligence agencies said in January that any Huawei risk could be managed as long as the company was not allowed to have a monopoly. As a result, Boris Johnson concluded Huawei’s market share should be capped at 35% for forthcoming high-speed 5G networks. In July 2020 the UK position changed, and it was announced that Huawei is to be stripped out of Britain’s 5G phone networks by 2027. Oliver Dowden, the UK culture secretary, also announced that no new Huawei 5G kit can be bought after 31 December 2020 – but said that older 2G, 3G and 4G kit can remain until it is no longer needed. Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Several senior Conservatives joined in, including former minister Owen Paterson, and Julian Lewis, a former chairman of the defence select committee. One backbencher, the former party leader Iain Duncan Smith, claimed he had been told previously that Johnson would not go along with an initial decision to allow Huawei to supply “non-core” 5G equipment. “I was led to believe this government would not make that decision,” he said.

Some support for Johnson’s anticipated compromise came from Labour benches. Kevan Jones, a Labour backbencher and former member of the intelligence and scrutiny committee, said the committee, which has access to classified material and has reviewed Huawei, had said “from the briefings and information I have seen, I think that any risk can be mitigated”.

After the debate, Bob Seely, a Conservative who is running to be chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said the debate revealed “the amount of opposition that is out there”. But he added that he thought the prime minister had already made up his mind to allow Huawei “which is weird, given the amount of cyber warfare the Chinese conduct against us”.

Britain’s spy agencies have long argued that any risks from Huawei – which already supplies 3G and 4G equipment – can be contained. The intelligence chiefs are also due to attend the NSC, alongside heads of the armed forces, to give their advice in person.

What is less clear is whether the UK’s compromise position will placate the White House, which has lobbied with increasing intensity over the issue, just as critical post-Brexit trade talks with the UK are due to to begin.

On Sunday night, Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, said that “only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign”. Pompeo is due in London on Wednesday and Thursday, where he will meet with Boris Johnson.

British officials, however, have been increasingly irritated by American lobbying, which it says has been simplistic, and failed to highlight any viable alternatives to Huawei that would allow the UK to take a different decision.

The US has told the UK that it should sacrifice cost for security by banning Huawei entirely, although that would mean higher bills. According to one American analysis, the average US mobile bill is $80 a month, whereas UK consumers pay $30, partly because the equipment used by the companies is cheaper.

A statement communicating the final decision is expected at around lunchtime on Tuesday. Formally, the matter sits with the Department of Culture, which is responsible for the telecoms supply chain review, meaning that the lead minister is Lady Nicky Morgan.

Huawei declined to comment ahead of the decision. Its key goal is to avoid an outright ban, and is otherwise expecting to fall in line with the restrictions spelled out.