Iain Dale 7pm - 10pm
MP tells Maajid Nawaz that Huawei are "a spying enterprise with a company attached"
8 March 2020, 08:52 | Updated: 8 March 2020, 08:55
The controversy surrounding Huawei's interest in the UK's 5G network reached a head in the past few weeks and MPs have begun to show their concern.
Maajid Nawaz was joined by Tom Tugendhat who is supporting a motion to reassess the UK's curretn interest in allowing Huawei access to the UK's 5G infrastructure.
Maajid, a skeptic of Huawei because of their close relationship with Chinese government intelligence, asked the MP "why do you think we ended up in this situation".
Maajid was of the impression that the government has gone into the deal with their eyes closed to the potential danger they're putting the nation's security in, should a deal go through.
Mr. Tugendhat was backing up the apprehensions of Maajid, sharing his own skepticism through what he's learned through the findings of other countries.
"Huawei looks less like a company, more like a spying enterprise with a company attached" the MP stated. He claimed that the Australian government had caution when facing Huawei because of their findings that the technology company was highly linked with the Chinese intelligence systems.
Mr. Tugendhat pointed out issues outside of the UK that have already been blamed on Huawei. "In the African union they've been sending packages to Beijing during the night".
Maajid simplified the concerns he has and stated that if the UK went with Huawei, "we end up creating a lifelong dependency to maintain these systems on an opaque state".