Senior US officials have presented Boris Johnson’s government with a new dossier of intelligence challenging the UK’s claim that it would be able to mitigate the risks of adopting Huawei technology in its 5G network. The officials say it would be “nothing short of madness” to go ahead.
The technical information was put forward in a meeting between US and UK security officials on Monday, as Washington made a last-ditch effort to persuade Downing Street against striking a deal with the Chinese telecoms company.
There are growing expectations that Mr Johnson will decide in favour of allowing the use of Huawei equipment in some “non-core” parts of the network, with a final decision due later in January.