UK fighting with ‘one hand tied behind our backs to keep our way of life’ amid Russia and China tensions, MI5 boss warns
BRITAIN is facing a terrifying threat from hostile nations which challenges our very way of life, one of the UK's top spies has warned.
Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, has claimed Russia and China are waging a covert war in the UK, trying to interfere in our Parliament as well as steal from businesses, universities, and ordinary Brits.
He called for an overhaul of Britain's spying laws to fight what he called a "struggle" for our "system" and "values".
Although he said it was "important not to frame this as Cold War II," he added: "We do need to stand up for our values, for our system, for the benefits of the democratic way of life that we, and our allies, hold dear".
Speaking to the , Ken warned that the UK's Official Secrets Act was outdated, meaning Britain is "operating with one hand behind our backs on state threats".
He went on: "Laws that had stood the test of time over theft of state secrets are insufficient to deal with the more nuanced interconnected world in which we all live.
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"We don't have in my view sufficient legal powers to deal with some of what we are now seeing.
"With state threats, we seek to do everything we can to make the UK resilient but in many cases, we don't have the ability to bring prosecutions in the criminal courts; for example, it is not presently a criminal offence to be a covert agent of a foreign power."
The Government has already set out plans to reform the "outdated" Official Secrets Act, including replacing the word "enemy" with "foreign power" and including spying as a crime regardless of whether they are a British citizen.
'STAND UP FOR OUR VALUES'
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also pledged to introduce a bill that will make it a criminal offence for individuals working on behalf of foreign governments not to register their presence.
Mr McCallum said that "espionage and interference" from a number of "powerful nations" had, in recent years, become increasingly common.
"We need to be clear that there is in effect a contest of different worlds now taking place, sometimes visibly, sometimes invisibly, between the liberal democrat model West and the more authoritarian model nations," he said.
"What we are dealing with won't, I don't think, become a confrontation of the sort our grandparents would recognise. [And] the UK does not need to cut itself off from the world.
"But we do need to be clear that standing up for our values and our way of life matters and sometimes that involves tough choices."
He also said that MPs should expect more security alerts like that released by MI5 about lawyer Christine Lee last month, and claimed that both China and Russia were trying to access advisers close to the Prime Minister.
In January, MI5 took the rare move of sharing a warning with MPs that Lee - a prominent London-based solicitor - was engaging in "political interference activities" on behalf of the Chinese regime.
Standing up for our values and our way of life matters and sometimes that involves tough choices
Ken McCallum
MI5 accused the Labour donor of channelling cash from Beijing to influence parliament as it publicly warned MPs and peers to avoid her.
Tensions between the UK and China have been stretched recently by the superpower’s Covid lies, dire human rights abuses and escalating espionage attacks.
In a dramatic step, MI5 publicly blew the whistle on the suspected agent after years of investigation of her activities in Westminster.
The Security Service issued an alert and picture of Lee, accusing her of "facilitating financial donations to serving and aspiring politicians" in an extremely rare move.
Lee, who has also been snapped shaking hands with China’s leader Xi Jinping, has been a long-time funder of Labour MP Barry Gardiner’s office through her law firm Christine Lee & Co, which also works for the Chinese Embassy in London.
In another major espionage mission, last year it was revealed a suspected Russian spy infiltrated the Conservative Party conference.
MI5 agents tailed a man after learning he was trying to get close to senior politicians including the PM.
He was spotted mingling with top Tories inside the secure zone just a day before Boris Johnson's keynote speech in Manchester.
A senior party source said: "He seemed keen on asking Cabinet ministers to pose for a selfie - but we feared it was something more sinister."
The suspect, a man in his 40s with thinning, sandy hair, was wearing a dark brown jacket and tie and wore a Covid mask and an official conference pass.
He was said to be on his phone constantly, taking pictures and sending messages.
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MI5 and police identified him as a Russian diplomat who had been cleared to attend the five-day conference.
A Tory spokesman at the time refused to discuss the operation but said: "Many foreign representatives attend Conservative Party Conference."