British intelligence agency MI5 may have issued Chinese warning to distract from Partygate scandal, court hears

CNN — London (CNN) — A former opposition MP in Britain’s House of Commons has claimed that Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 may have issued a rare alert about a suspected Chinese agent in 2022 to distract from the so-called Partygate scandal, according to testimony given to a court investigating the alert.

In the warning issued in January 2022, MI5 claimed that Christine Ching Kui Lee had acted “covertly in a coordinated manner” on behalf of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and was “guilty of engaging in political interference activities in the United Kingdom”.

The warning was issued a day after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologised to the House of Commons over the Partygate scandal. Johnson’s time in office ended abruptly in 2022 after it was revealed that numerous social gatherings took place during his time in office – some of which he personally attended – at a time when Britons were living under strict rules due to Covid-19.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal in London heard on Monday that Barry Gardiner, a former opposition Labour Party MP to whom Lee donated more than £500,000 (more than $600,000) between 2014 and 2020, said in a text message that he had heard the MI5 warning had been issued to “divert attention” from Johnson’s Partygate scandal, the PA news agency reported.

In a text message forwarded to Lee by a friend, Gardiner said “many people” had told him “they believe the reason for publishing the story was to divert attention from Boris’s Partygate apology,” according to the PA report. Gardiner did not specify who those people were who made the suggestion. The court was also not presented with any evidence to support the allegations on Monday. The hearing will continue on Tuesday.

CNN reached out to Gardiner’s office but did not receive an immediate response.

“I never believed that the security services would act in such an openly party-political manner (…) It was also suggested to me that the security services may have wanted to ‘start a fight’ or ‘distract’ from something else and that we were merely collateral damage,” said part of a text by Gardiner, which Lee’s lawyer read out at the hearing, according to PA.

CNN has also reached out to the British Home Office and Boris Johnson’s office for comment.

The MI5 alert in question also accused Lee of facilitating “financial donations to political parties, parliamentarians, parliamentary candidates and persons seeking political office in the United Kingdom, including donations to political entities on behalf of foreign nationals.”

“Ms Lee denies the allegations and is taking legal action against the security service along with her son Daniel Wilkes, who lost his job with Mr Gardiner following the warning. They argue that issuing the warning was unlawful and violated their human rights,” PA reported.

Gardiner was a Labour MP from 1997 to 2024. He was chairman of the now-defunct all-party parliamentary group “Chinese in Britain”, of which Lee was also a member.

It was not illegal for Lee to make the donations because the UK did not have a foreign agent registration law at the time. Likewise, it was not illegal for a British citizen or a foreigner working in the UK to be a member of the Chinese Communist Party. Lee is registered as a British citizen in the UK’s company register. The UK has since introduced a foreign agent registration law, which is expected to come into force later this year.

In a statement to CNN in 2022, Gardiner said he had not personally benefited in any way from Lee’s donations, adding that the money was properly reported and its source verified.

CNN’s Andrew Raine contributed to this report.

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