London - British police said they will not probe a leak of information about Chinese telecoms company Huawei that cost Gavin Williamson his job as defence minister this week, as no criminal offence was committed.

Williamson strenuously denied being responsible for the leak, but May said she had lost confidence in him, after the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported discussions from within Britain's National Security Council.

"I am satisfied that what was disclosed did not contain information that would breach the Official Secrets Act," Britain's top counter-terrorism police officer, Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Neil Basu, said on Saturday.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and Britain's Defence Minister Gavin Williamson attend a multilateral meeting of the North Atlantic Council with Georgia and Ukraine, during the NATO summit in Brussels last year. File picture: Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters

"The leak did not cause damage to the public interest at a level at which it would be necessary to engage misconduct in a public office. It would be inappropriate to carry out a police investigation in these circumstances."

Reuters