Cabinet ministers will be asked to provide details of their mobile phones and surrender them for inspection as part of an investigation into a leak of the decision by the UK National Security Council, chaired by Prime Minister Theresa May, to allow Huawei’s partial involvement in the build-out of Britain’s future 5G network, The Daily Telegraph reported.
They were also reportedly asked if they had spoken to The Daily Telegraph before the news outlet broke the story on Wednesday.
According to the newspaper, Gavin Barwell, May’s chief of staff, has warned that if anyone found to be responsible for the major security breach, they “will not be a member of the Government for much longer”.
Ministers will allegedly be asked to disclose their movements and conversations following the National Security Council meeting on Tuesday, at which the prime minister gave the go-ahead to Huawei’s participation in the UK’s future 5G mobile phone network.
Following the exposure of the sensitive information, UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and Home Secretary Sajid Javid vehemently denied that they might be behind the leak.
The leak inquiry was ordered after The Telegraph broke the news that the Prime Minister had green-lit Huawei to bid for “non core” 5G infrastructure, despite objections from Cabinet ministers including Javid, Hunt, Williamson, Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt, and Trade Secretary Liam Fox.
“My understanding from London [is] that an investigation has been announced. I think it is very important that we get to the bottom of what happened here”, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said on Friday.