London: Malcolm Turnbull has urged Britain not to allow Huawei to build its 5G network, saying Australia banned the Chinese telecommunications giant because of its own security advice, not after pressure from the United States.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Credit:AAP

The former prime minister's comments constitute the strongest warning delivered by an Australian regarding Huawei, and comes ahead of the British government's review and Cabinet decision on the matter.

Addressing an audience that included many prominent British MPs at the Henry Jackson Society, a hawkish London think tank, Turnbull said last month's hack of Australian political parties underlined the need to be agile in responding to the growing cyber threat.

"It's why in one of the final decisions made while I was prime minister, as a decision of the government of course, the Cabinet, was to ban telecommunications companies which could not meet our security requirements, and that included Huawei and ZTE from providing equipment to our new 5G telecom networks on national security grounds," he said.