Nirj Deva MEP urged colleagues to support Huawei in EU parliament vote

Huawei stepping up EU lobbying as leak sacking divides cabinet

Deva warned previously by EU committee over undeclared China trip

Conservative MEP also linked to Steve Bannon Italy-based “gladiator school”, and met Bannon in White House

As the ongoing controversy over Huawei engulfs Theresa May’s cabinet, a senior Conservative politician with a controversial lobbying history has emerged as one of the Chinese telecommunications company’s leading advocates in Brussels.

On Wednesday the prime minister sacked her defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, after he was accused of leaking secret discussions about Huawei that suggested May “overruled” senior ministers and security warnings to let the Chinese tech giant help build Britain’s new 5G mobile internet network.

Those concerns do not appear to have resonated with Nirj Deva, a Tory MEP and number two on the party’s list for the upcoming European Parliament elections, who recently urged colleagues to back Huawei in an upcoming vote in Brussels.

“I would ask you to make decisions based on facts, rather than unfounded allegations and to consider the very real implications of banning Chinese technology from our market,” Deva wrote to colleagues on 12 March in a leaked email seen by openDemocracy and SourceMaterial. “There has not been a single instance of foul play detected on any Huawei product.”

Hours after Deva's email the European Parliament endorsed a resolution expressing "deep concern" about the possibility 5G technology developed by Chinese companies contained "embedded back doors".

Huawei’s potential role in the UK’s 5G network threatens to chill trans-Atlantic relations, with a senior US official warning earlier in the week that America will be forced to "reassess" its intelligence-sharing relationship if May does not change course.

The company has been accused of installing “back doors” in its technology which, according to Robert Strayer, deputy assistant secretary for cyber at the US state department, could allow the Chinese state to "undermine network security, to skim personal information, distribute cyber attacks and disrupt critical infrastructure" – claims that Huawei denies.

Contacted by SourceMaterial and openDemocracy, Deva said he had “no relationship” with Huawei and had never met any of its representatives, adding that his concern was to give the company a “level playing field”.

“I believed banning people without evidence or enough evidence wasn't our style in Britain – we believe in open markets,” he said. “China has been one of Europe's most important economic partners."

Brexit-supporting Deva founded and chairs the EU parliament’s China Friendship Group, not always without controversy. In 2014 he failed to declare a Chinese state-funded business class flight to Beijing and a six-night stay in a luxury hotel, adding the trip to his register of interests only after a warning from a cross-party advisory group.

Other declarations show five further trips to China paid for by Beijing – in 2014, 2015, 2016, and two in 2018 – including subsistence payments, business class flights and five-star hotel accomodation.