Boris Johnson is now facing the threat of his first Commons rebellion since the general election, over his decision to let the Chinese firm Huawei play a role in building the UK’s 5G infrastructure. Conservative MPs expressed their concerns in the Commons yesterday and, although they were not quite as outspoken as some were when the same topic was discussed on Monday, talk of a revolt is firming up. The government announced yesterday that it plans to legislate to ensure that “high risk vendors” (ie, Huawei) can only run 35% of the 5G network. Legislation means votes, and voting means backbenchers have leverage (because the main opposition parties, Labour and the SNP, are also very critical of this decision on national security grounds). On Newsnight last night Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative party leader, said that there would have to be “modification” to the government’s plans and that the 35% threshold was too high.
BBC Newsnight
(@BBCNewsnight)“I’m absolutely convinced, and everyone thinks so too, that China is a direct threat in cyberspace.”
MPs have criticised the government’s decision to allow Huawei involvement in the UK’s 5G network.
Tory MP @MPIainDS says he wants to see the firm “out of the system”#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/qH87uz1LOf
And on the Today programme this morning Damian Green, the former first secretary of state, also said that he wanted to see the 35% figure driven down in a future vote. Asked how much support the rebels might have from Tory backbenchers for such a plan, he said:
Well, one of the things that that frankly surprised me was the breadth of the opposition to the current stance of the government on the Conservative back benches.
We don’t know yet, when push comes to shove and votes happen, how many people will actually put their heads above the parapet. But certainly it’s very widespread.
The government has a majority of 80, and Green conceded that that meant roughly 40 MPs would need to rebel for the government to be at risk of defeat. But he did not rule this out.
There did appear to be very widespread opposition from members old and new, on the left and right of the party, so there’s there was very widespread, strong unease about the way the government is going on this.
Green’s intervention confirmed the very point he was making. While Duncan Smith is on the right of the party, Green himself is firmly on the Tory left. New MPs may be more reluctant to rebel than old ones, of course, and the government could make concessions over the 35% target to appease its critics, but it can’t go too far without driving Huawei out of the 5G market, which would defeat the point of the announcement made yesterday. This is definitely one for the chief whip’s “problems” folder.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: Lisa Nandy, a candidate for the Labour leadership, holds a phone-in on LBC.
10am: MPs start voting in elections for select committee chairs. The ballot closes at 4pm, and the results will be announced at some point after that.
12pm: Boris Johnson faces Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs.
2pm (UK time): MEPs debate the EU withdrawal agreement. The vote will come at 5pm.
2pm: The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) and the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation hold an event in parliament to lobby MPs.
Around 5pm: Johnson is expected to hold a “People’s PMQs” on Facebook.
Afternoon: Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, arrives in London for talks with Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, today, and with Johnson tomorrow.
As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary when I wrap up.
You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
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