A former opposition lawmaker in Britain’s House of Commons has alleged that the UK’s domestic spy agency MI5 may have issued a rare alert notice in 2022 about an alleged Chinese agent as a distraction from the so-called Partygate scandal. The alert, issued in January 2022, accused Christine Ching Kui Lee of acting covertly on behalf of China’s ruling Communist Party and engaging in political interference activities in the UK.
The timing of the alert, coming a day after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologized for the Partygate scandal, raised suspicions. Barry Gardiner, a former Labour Party lawmaker to whom Lee had donated over £500,000, suggested that the MI5 alert was meant to divert attention from Johnson’s Partygate apology. However, no concrete evidence was presented to support this claim during the tribunal hearing.
