British police said Wednesday they had arrested three men on suspicion of spying for China, with one reportedly the partner of a lawmaker from the ruling Labour party.
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.
The arrests come amid rising concerns over alleged Chinese espionage in the UK.
All three men remain in custody and searches were also carried out an address in Scotland, said the Met.
In a statement to MPs, security minister Dan Jarvis said the UK had made diplomatic representations with 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,” Jarvis added.
The BBC reported that one of the suspects is the partner of a sitting MP, but did not name the lawmaker.
The speaker of the House of Commons lower chamber told MPs that the suspect “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.
Last year, legal proceedings against two men accused of spying for China, one of whom had been a parliamentary researcher, collapsed, sparking a political row.
Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London at the Met, said Wednesday that the force had seen “a significant increase in our casework relating to national security in recent years”.
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