What David Cameron said about Huawei 'inconceivable' says former intelligence committee chair

EXCLUSIVE

The former chair of Australia’s parliamentary Intelligence Committee has questioned the claim by the UK’s foreign secretary David Cameron that the advice on the security risks posed by Huawei radically changed after he left Number 10.

Cameron, who won office in 2010, quit as UK prime minister after losing the Brexit referendum in 2016.

His other foreign policy legacy was to oversee a so-called Golden Era of British-Sino relations in which the Chinese were actively encouraged to increase trade and investment with Britain, including in critical infrastructure, namely the nuclear energy and mobile systems.

In November, his protégé, Rishi Sunak - the UK’s third Prime Minister since Cameron’s exit - named his mentor as Foreign Secretary in a move that stunned Westminster and foreign policy watchers worldwide.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron addresses the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, January 9, 2023.

Making his first appearance at the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee since being returned to the Cabinet table, Cameron was questioned by MPs about his record on China and the contentious decision to invite Huawei to integrate further into the next generations of mobile networks.

“On Huawei, look it was difficult, it was one of the few things that after leaving office I actually asked for a sort of, proper briefing about because the advice changed quite radically, from about 2015 to 2017/2018” he told MPs.

“So I wanted to understand what changed, perhaps we might need a more private session to go through that.”

But Anthony Byrne, the former Labor MP and Chair of the Australian Parliament’s Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, said Cameron’s assertion was not credible given the Australian government first banned Huawei on security grounds in 2012.