{"id":1807327,"date":"2026-03-04T20:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1807327"},"modified":"2026-03-04T20:24:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:24:00","slug":"uk-lawmakers-partner-arrested-over-china-spying-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1807327","title":{"rendered":"UK lawmaker’s partner arrested over China spying allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/60495331_6.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/p.dw.com\/p\/59oMX<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n
Chinese espionage threats have become a sensitive matter in the UK in recent months [FILE: December 2020]Image: Avalon\/Photoshot\/picture alliance<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The partner\u00a0of a sitting Labour member of parliament was one of the three men arrested by British<\/a> police on Wednesday, media reports say.<\/p>\n

British police\u00a0said in a statement<\/a> that three men were arrested on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service.<\/p>\n

That stood in violation of\u00a0section 3 of the National Security Act, 2023, which was introduced to give authorities greater power to tackle foreign interference.<\/p>\n

In the statement, police confirmed that the country in question was China<\/a>. The statement didn’t name the men, in keeping with UK practice.<\/p>\n

All three men, aged 39, 43 and 68, remain in custody.<\/p>\n

UK media say partner of Labour MP among those accused of spying for China<\/h2>\n

According to UK media reports, David Taylor, who is married to Joani Reid, the Labour lawmaker representing the East Kilbride area, was arrested.<\/p>\n

Reid said in a statement to newspapers\u00a0like the Times<\/em> and Telegraph<\/em> that she\u00a0had “never seen anything to make me suspect my husband has broken any law.”<\/p>\n

“I am not part of my husband\u2019s business activities and\u00a0neither I nor my children are part of this investigation,” it read. “I have never been to China. I have never spoken on China\u00a0or China-related \u200bmatters in the (House of) Commons.”<\/p>\n

Asked about the reports in parliament, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, declined to give any further details. Jarvis said later in a statement:\u00a0“We will always challenge any country, including China, that\u00a0attempts to interfere with or undermine the integrity of our\u00a0democratic institutions.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Britain under pressure to tackle Chinese security threats<\/h2>\n

Last November, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency warned British lawmakers that China was using headhunters on LinkedIn and other covert operatives to recruit and compromise them.<\/p>\n

That rare warning bell came two months after a political scandal erupted in the country over the collapse of an espionage case against two British men accused of passing sensitive information to China.<\/p>\n

The new arrests now present a new challenge for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has pledged to reset ties with China after years of mistrust\u00a0complicated ties between the countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Starmer became the\u00a0first UK leader in eight years to visit\u00a0Beijing<\/a>\u00a0in his bid to\u00a0expand economic ties with Beijing and as Washington became harder to depend on.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday,\u00a0China’s embassy in London said it lodged a protest with the British side and condemned what it called attempts to\u00a0“fabricate facts and concoct so-called\u00a0‘espionage cases’ to maliciously slander China.”<\/p>\n

Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

\n

The partner\u00a0of a sitting Labour member of parliament was one of the three men arrested by British<\/a> police on Wednesday, media reports say.<\/p>\n

British police\u00a0said in a statement<\/a> that three men were arrested on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service.<\/p>\n

That stood in violation of\u00a0section 3 of the National Security Act, 2023, which was introduced to give authorities greater power to tackle foreign interference.<\/p>\n

In the statement, police confirmed that the country in question was China<\/a>. The statement didn’t name the men, in keeping with UK practice.<\/p>\n

All three men, aged 39, 43 and 68, remain in custody.<\/p>\n

UK media say partner of Labour MP among those accused of spying for China<\/h2>\n

According to UK media reports, David Taylor, who is married to Joani Reid, the Labour lawmaker representing the East Kilbride area, was arrested.<\/p>\n

Reid said in a statement to newspapers\u00a0like the Times<\/em> and Telegraph<\/em> that she\u00a0had “never seen anything to make me suspect my husband has broken any law.”<\/p>\n

“I am not part of my husband\u2019s business activities and\u00a0neither I nor my children are part of this investigation,” it read. “I have never been to China. I have never spoken on China\u00a0or China-related \u200bmatters in the (House of) Commons.”<\/p>\n

Asked about the reports in parliament, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, declined to give any further details. Jarvis said later in a statement:\u00a0“We will always challenge any country, including China, that\u00a0attempts to interfere with or undermine the integrity of our\u00a0democratic institutions.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Britain under pressure to tackle Chinese security threats<\/h2>\n

Last November, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency warned British lawmakers that China was using headhunters on LinkedIn and other covert operatives to recruit and compromise them.<\/p>\n

That rare warning bell came two months after a political scandal erupted in the country over the collapse of an espionage case against two British men accused of passing sensitive information to China.<\/p>\n

The new arrests now present a new challenge for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has pledged to reset ties with China after years of mistrust\u00a0complicated ties between the countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Starmer became the\u00a0first UK leader in eight years to visit\u00a0Beijing<\/a>\u00a0in his bid to\u00a0expand economic ties with Beijing and as Washington became harder to depend on.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday,\u00a0China’s embassy in London said it lodged a protest with the British side and condemned what it called attempts to\u00a0“fabricate facts and concoct so-called\u00a0‘espionage cases’ to maliciously slander China.”<\/p>\n

Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The partner\u00a0of a sitting Labour member of parliament was one of the three men arrested by British<\/a> police on Wednesday, media reports say.<\/p>\n

British police\u00a0said in a statement<\/a> that three men were arrested on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service.<\/p>\n

That stood in violation of\u00a0section 3 of the National Security Act, 2023, which was introduced to give authorities greater power to tackle foreign interference.<\/p>\n

In the statement, police confirmed that the country in question was China<\/a>. The statement didn’t name the men, in keeping with UK practice.<\/p>\n

All three men, aged 39, 43 and 68, remain in custody.<\/p>\n

According to UK media reports, David Taylor, who is married to Joani Reid, the Labour lawmaker representing the East Kilbride area, was arrested.<\/p>\n

Reid said in a statement to newspapers\u00a0like the Times<\/em> and Telegraph<\/em> that she\u00a0had “never seen anything to make me suspect my husband has broken any law.”<\/p>\n

“I am not part of my husband\u2019s business activities and\u00a0neither I nor my children are part of this investigation,” it read. “I have never been to China. I have never spoken on China\u00a0or China-related \u200bmatters in the (House of) Commons.”<\/p>\n

Asked about the reports in parliament, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, declined to give any further details. Jarvis said later in a statement:\u00a0“We will always challenge any country, including China, that\u00a0attempts to interfere with or undermine the integrity of our\u00a0democratic institutions.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last November, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency warned British lawmakers that China was using headhunters on LinkedIn and other covert operatives to recruit and compromise them.<\/p>\n

That rare warning bell came two months after a political scandal erupted in the country over the collapse of an espionage case against two British men accused of passing sensitive information to China.<\/p>\n

The new arrests now present a new challenge for Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has pledged to reset ties with China after years of mistrust\u00a0complicated ties between the countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Starmer became the\u00a0first UK leader in eight years to visit\u00a0Beijing<\/a>\u00a0in his bid to\u00a0expand economic ties with Beijing and as Washington became harder to depend on.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday,\u00a0China’s embassy in London said it lodged a protest with the British side and condemned what it called attempts to\u00a0“fabricate facts and concoct so-called\u00a0‘espionage cases’ to maliciously slander China.”<\/p>\n

Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/uk-labour-husband-arrested-china-spy-allegations\/a-76220229″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/60495331_6.jpg”] https:\/\/p.dw.com\/p\/59oMX Chinese espionage threats have become a sensitive matter in the UK in recent months [FILE: December 2020]Image: Avalon\/Photoshot\/picture alliance The partner\u00a0of a sitting Labour member of parliament was one of the three men arrested by British police on Wednesday, media reports say. British police\u00a0said in a statement that three men were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,74],"class_list":["post-1807327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dw-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1807327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1807327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1807327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1807327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}