{"id":5251,"date":"2026-03-04T20:35:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T20:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/uk-police-arrest-three-men-on-suspicion-of-spying-for-china\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T20:35:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T20:35:29","slug":"uk-police-arrest-three-men-on-suspicion-of-spying-for-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/uk-police-arrest-three-men-on-suspicion-of-spying-for-china\/","title":{"rendered":"UK police arrest three men on suspicion of spying for China"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Husband of a lawmaker from Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s ruling Labour Party among those arrested, local media report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>British police have arrested three men suspected of spying for China, including the husband of a lawmaker from Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s ruling Labour Party, local media reported.<\/p>\n<p>London\u2019s Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday that the three men had allegedly assisted a foreign intelligence service, in violation of the country\u2019s National Security Act of 2023, which was introduced to grant additional powers to tackle foreign interference.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/2\/13\/new-cia-recruitment-video-targets-chinese-military-personnel\">New CIA recruitment video targets Chinese military personnel<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/4\/analyst-says-interest-in-epstein-files-plummeted-after-war-on-iran-launched\">Analyst says interest in Epstein files plummeted after war on Iran launched<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/4\/is-the-cia-planning-to-arm-kurdish-forces-to-spark-an-uprising-in-iran\">Is the CIA planning to arm Kurdish forces to spark an uprising in Iran?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>While the police did not name those who have been detained, as they are yet to be charged, they said they included a 39-year-old man arrested in London, a 68-year-old man arrested in Powys, Wales, and a 43-year-old man arrested in Pontyclun, Wales.<\/p>\n<p>Following reports by The Times and the Telegraph that the husband of Joani Reid, the Labour lawmaker for the East Kilbride area in Wales, was among those arrested, she issued a statement saying she had \u201cnever seen anything to make me suspect my husband has broken any law\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am not part of my husband\u2019s business activities and neither I nor my children are part of this investigation,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have never been to China. I have never spoken on China or China-related matters in the [House of] Commons,\u201d it added, without naming her husband, David Taylor, a former Labour Party adviser who is 39 years old.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, China and the United Kingdom have traded spying accusations, straining the relations between the two countries.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, the Chinese embassy in London condemned what it called attempts to \u201cfabricate facts and concoct so-called \u2018espionage cases\u2019 to maliciously slander China\u201d, and said it had lodged a protest with the British side.<\/p>\n<p>British officials complained to their Chinese counterparts about the latest arrests, Security Minister Dan Jarvis said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government has been consistent and unambiguous in our assessment that China presents a series of threats to the United Kingdom,\u201d Jarvis said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe remain deeply concerned by an increasing pattern of covert activity from Chinese state-linked actors targeting UK democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last November, Britain\u2019s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, warned lawmakers that Chinese agents were making \u201ctargeted and widespread\u201d efforts to recruit them through cover companies or LinkedIn, claims that Beijing has strongly denied.<\/p>\n<p>The arrests could cast a shadow over British Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s attempts to improve relations with Beijing following a January visit and the approval for China to build the largest embassy in Europe in the British capital, despite criticism that Starmer was prioritising the economy over security risks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Husband of a lawmaker from Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s ruling Labour Party among those arrested, local media report. British police have arrested three men suspected of spying for China, including the husband of a lawmaker from Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s ruling Labour Party, local media reported. London\u2019s Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday that the three &#8230; <a title=\"UK police arrest three men on suspicion of spying for China\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/uk-police-arrest-three-men-on-suspicion-of-spying-for-china\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about UK police arrest three men on suspicion of spying for China\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}