UK MP’s husband among three accused of spying for China

Summary

• British police arrested three men on March 4 for assisting China's intelligence service; they reportedly had close links to UK Parliament.
• The arrests highlight strained UK-China relations over spying, leading the government to plan new foreign interference powers.
• This follows prior MI5 warnings to lawmakers and a separate trial of two men accused of spying for China on dissidents.

LONDON - British police on March 4 arrested three men on suspicion of spying for China, including the husband of a lawmaker from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s ruling Labour party.

Chinese espionage is a politically sensitive subject in Britain and the case could potentially become awkward for Mr Starmer who visited Beijing recently
as part of his resetting of relations with the Asian giant.

The trio, aged 39, 43 and 68, were arrested by counter-terrorism officers in London and Wales on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service, London’s Metropolitan police said.

“I have never seen anything to make me suspect my husband has broken any law,” said MP Joani Reid, after UK media reported that her husband David Taylor was among those arrested.

“I am not part of my husband’s business activities and neither I nor my children are part of this investigation,” she added.

All three men remain in custody and the arrests come amid rising concerns over alleged Chinese espionage in the UK.

Mr Starmer has been criticised by opposition politicians, human rights groups and US President Donald Trump for greenlighting a massive new Chinese embassy in central London and for visiting Beijing earlier this year.

The UK leader has repeatedly defended his visit to China, the first by a British prime minister since 2018, as important to forge closer ties with the world’s second largest economy.

Ms Reid, who represents a constituency in Scotland and sits on Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee, defended herself against any potential accusations of her being close to Beijing.

“I have never been to China,” she said. “I have never spoken on China or China-related matters in the Commons. I have never asked a question on China-related matters.”

Mr Taylor, 39, is listed as a “lobbyist” on Ms Reid’s list of registered interests.

According to his LinkedIn page, he works for Asia House, a think-tank.

‘Severe consequences’ warning

Earlier, security minister Dan Jarvis told MPs the UK had made diplomatic representations to China over the matter.

“If there is proven evidence of attempts by China to interfere with UK sovereign affairs, we will impose severe consequences and hold all actors involved to account,” he said.

“We remain deeply concerned by an increasing pattern of covert activity from Chinese state linked actors targeting UK democracy,” Mr Jarvis added.

The speaker of the House of Commons lower chamber told MPs that Ms Reid’s husband, “did not have a pass to access the parliamentary estate”.

Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 warned in November
that China was attempting to “cultivate individuals” with access to sensitive information about parliament and the UK government.

In 2025, legal proceedings against two men accused of spying for China, one of whom had been a parliamentary researcher, collapsed, sparking a political row.

Ms Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London at the Met, said March 4 that the force had seen “a significant increase in our casework relating to national security in recent years”.

Opposition Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch said “the government needs to stop being naive, grow a backbone and treat China as the threat we all know it is”.

A spokesperson for China’s embassy in London said “some people in the UK are always keen to fabricate facts and concoct so-called ‘espionage cases’ to maliciously slander China”.

“We urge the relevant British parties to immediately cease such anti-China political manipulation.”

Britain in January approved China’s plans
to build Beijing’s largest embassy in Europe in London, leading critics to accuse Mr Starmer of prioritising economic prospects over security risks.

Separately on March 4, two men went on trial in London
accused by British prosecutors of carrying out hostile surveillance on well-known pro-democracy dissidents for Hong Kong and, ultimately, China. AFP, REUTERS