Sir Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of “doing a runner” over the decision on whether to allow Huawei a role in the UK’s 5G infrastructure, as Washington gave a final warning to the UK government over what it called a “momentous” choice.

Ahead of a likely decision on Tuesday, with the cabinet reportedly split and the Trump administration urging Downing Street to block any role for the Chinese telecoms firm, Starmer urged Johnson to make a statement to MPs in the Commons.

“There are so many questions that are unanswered,” Starmer, the favourite to win the race to become the new Labour leader, told Sky News. “He’s done a bit of a runner, has Boris Johnson. He’s not around and he’s not leading from the front. He needs to come to parliament, make a statement and face questions about this.”

Johnson is to chair a meeting of the national security council on Tuesday to reach a final decision on Huawei, following a series of indications from Downing Street that they are likely to grant the Chinese firm a limited role.

Downing Street sources have said there is no other credible supplier for the infrastructure Huawei would provide, and that the US has been unable to suggest one.

US pressure on Johnson has ramped up, with the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who is due to visit the UK later this week, tweeting his support for a leading backbench Conservative MP who has urged the government to reject Huawei.

“The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G,” Pompeo said. “British MP Tom Tugendhat gets it right: ‘The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign’.”

Tugendhat, who is seeking to reprise his role as the chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, has warned that using a Chinese firm could cause security or back-door surveillance issues given Beijing’s approach to the rule of law and civil rights.

“It’s no good taking back control from Brussels only to hand it over to Beijing,” Tugendhat told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday. “And I’m sure that’s not what the government would want to do.

“This isn’t about the Americans – it’s simply about us. And, though I’m pleased to have the support of the US secretary of state, I would rather have the support of our secretary of state for culture, media and sport [Nicky Morgan] here to make a decision that I think is fundamentally in the British national interest.”

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

Tugendhat has previously called for Huawei to at least have a limit imposed on how much involvement it can have in the 5G infrastructure. On Monday, the Financial Times reported that the government was looking at a market cap as a possible compromise to placate the Americans.

Pompeo is due to meet Johnson and the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, in London on Wednesday.

His tweeted warning follows a phone call between Johnson and Donald Trump on Friday, in which the leaders reportedly discussed the security of telecommunications networks.

Speaking on Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour on Sunday evening, the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, said the decision would be based on “our own sovereign right to choose”.

He said: “It’s Britain that will have to live with the consequences of that. There are risks but we will make an informed decision based on the evidence, and we will do so in an autonomous way.”

On Sunday, the home secretary, Priti Patel, reported as being one of the cabinet ministers pushing for a rethink on Huawei, dismissed the idea she was leading a rebellion over the issue, or that using the Chinese firm could imperil continued intelligence-sharing with the US and others.

She told Sky News the reports were “not accurate”, adding: “My role is very much to protect the national security of our country and that also includes intelligence services and communications as well.

“We are having discussions, and rightly so, and those discussions remain at the national security council level and within cabinet level.”