Guto Harri reportedly lobbied No 10 chief of staff to stop ban on Huawei

theguardian.com:

Boris Johnson’s new communications director lobbied a former chief of staff at Downing Street not to ban Chinese technology company Huawei over spying fears, leaked documents suggest.

Guto Harri, who was appointed No 10’s press chief on Monday in the wake of the partygate resignations, reportedly asked Sir Eddie Lister which ministers he could “nudge” for help.

He met Lister, who was then the prime minister’s chief of staff, as well as three top executives from the technology firm Huawei, which has links with the ruling Chinese Communist party, on 2 June 2020, according to the Sun.

The paper said that Harri, representing lobbying firm Hawthorn Advisors, used the 25-minute video call to ask which ministers to approach at a time when the security service was reviewing the risk of allowing the firm into the UK’s core telecommunications network.

He asked Lister if there were “any ­ministers we should talk to? Perhaps give a nudge in DCMS [Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport] or Treasury?”.

The paper said that, according to minutes taken at the time, the paper said the No 10 chief of staff suggested Johnson did not want to ban Huawei but was “caught” between pressure from the Tory party and the US government.

He said: “This PM is not anti-China and is not Donald Trump,” adding that Johnson “believes in good relationships with China. He is not coming from a negative place in any way.”

He added: “We are caught. We want the technology, we want it rolled out. There’s an American concern and a parliamentary concern. There are a large number of MPs across the political divide who have a problem with China. Some are Atlanticists, some over Covid, some over Hong Kong, some over human rights.”

No 10 defended Harri’s appointment