Boris Johnson set to keep Huawei out of UK 5G

Boris Johnson said late on Sunday he now has “sound technical reasons” to keep Chinese firm Huawei out of the development of the UK’s 5G infrastructure.

MI6 official, Sir John Sawers, said new US sanctions imposed on the company meant that allowing Huawei to expand its grip on the UK telecoms market posed security risks that did not apply when the government announced a compromise solution in January giving it up to 35% of the market.

The apparent policy reversal was driven by a new report from a branch of British intelligence agency GCHQ that raised new security fears over Huawei following US moves to cut off the Chinese firm from key chips.

The National Cyber Security Centre has also concluded that the balance of risk has changed and that Huawei must be excluded from 5G.

In a statement on Sunday, Huawei said the US sanctions were “not about security, but about market position” and that it wanted to find a way of managing them “so the UK can maintain its current lead in 5G”.

The statement went on: “All our world-leading products and solutions use technology and components over which the UK government has strict oversight.”

The US has been on a global campaign for over a year to convince nations to block Huawei from their 5G networks