Since taking the government reins in 2016, British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government has been rocked by a series of Cabinet resignations over Brexit issues, but her sacking the country’s defense secretary Wednesday over leaks from the U.K.’s top security organization has added more scrutiny to the security of information shared by Britain’s allies.
The unprecedented dismissal of Gavin Williamson from one of the country’s most sensitive offices came on Wednesday with a short statement from Downing Street after Williamson refused to step down.
The incident emerged after reports by a British newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, of what was discussed during a National Security Council (NCS) meeting – a classified gathering of top ministers who talk about sensitive security matters.
The Daily Telegraph reported on May’s decision about the involvement of Huawei, a Chinese telecom, in building Britain’s 5G mobile network, including how she overruled some ministers’ reservations over a contract with the firm.
After the report over May’s green light to Huawei – a confidential decision made at the NSC – U.S. authorities, who have opposed China’s involvement in U.K. telecommunications, threatened their British counterparts with withholding intelligence if the Chinese firm was brought in.
U.S. officials have voiced their concerns over Huawei’s involvement in the U.K.’s next-generation 5G mobile network, claiming the company is “not a trusted vendor” and so any use of it in U.K. networks would constitute a security risk, according to Robert Strayer, a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. State Department.
Following the leak, Strayer said if Huawei technology was used by the U.K. that Washington would have to “reassess the ability for us to share information and be interconnected.”
Britain’s intelligence agencies, however, believe that any risk from Huawei could be contained, and their assessments are believed to have played a role in May’s decision that it can be contracted as a “non-core” supplier in 5G.
The matter, following the leaks over the controversial decision by a tabloid, quickly became a serious but played-down security matter for the U.K., not necessarily about what information was leaked but where it was leaked from, resulting in launch of the most serious leak inquiry in decades.
The NSC, after all, is the top organization where the prime minister and line ministries share, evaluate, and process sensitive information and a leak, in any form, is not acceptable at any level.