merelygifted:

 

Cabinet members who were at Tuesday’s National Security Council (NSC) have been sent an ultimatum by Whitehall’s most powerful official to confess or deny whether they leaked a controversial decision to allow Chinese telecoms firm Huawei to help build the UK’s 5G phone network.

 

secretary Sir Mark Sedwill is understood to have written to those present and demanded that they tell him by 2pm whether they were involved and would be willing to cooperate with an inquiry, prompting the five prime suspects to scramble to “categorically deny” that they were behind the leak.

 

The move came at an acutely sensitive time as several of those present are hoping to take over as prime minister when Theresa May steps down. There are also growing calls for whoever did leak the information to the Daily Telegraph to be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act.

 

Sedwill also asked the senior ministers present to agree that their special advisers, and any officials who had access to information about the outcome of the NSC meeting, would also assist the inquiry.

 

The NSC meeting had decided to allow Huawei to supply some “non core” telecoms equipment for next-generation phone networks in the UK and the initial focus over the leak has centred on the five ministers present who were opposed to Huawei’s having any involvement in 5G.  …