China has launched a “covert and calculated” effort to recruit British MPs through LinkedIn.

MI5 has warned politicians across the board that Beijing was trying to recruit spies through the professional networking site.

Security services contacted all MPs, peers and parliamentary staff cautioning them about “headhunters” offering them work with Chinese firms.

The agency warned of “typical MSS [China’s ministry of state security] tradecraft and methodology from a specific group of highly active officers”.

The alert from MI5 said: “Officers use false personas on websites such as LinkedIn, which they use to spot and approach targets.

“From the start officers are particularly interested in ‘non-public’ and ‘insider’ insights as well as in understanding networks, to identify potential sources of information.”

Two people named by MI5, Amanda Qiu and Shirly Shen, are thought to have been involved in recent attempts.

However, there is no actual evidence that these two women exist.

Instead, the images on the profiles could be AI-generated or stolen from other legitimate accounts.

It is understood there are more than these two profiles working with Beijing, with sources saying China has considerable resources to achieve its goals.

Security agents said it is not just Government workers risk of being targeted – but also academics, researchers and consultants.

Using LinkedIn, Ms Qiu and Ms Shen attempted to contact civil servants at numerous Government departments, think tank members, senior party officials and employees at Amazon and Meta, according to The Telegraph.

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One person targeted by the alleged Chinese spies used to work for Priti Patel, the Shadow Foreign Secretary who has been a vocal critic of the Chinese state.

They were asked about becoming a “political consultant” but said the message “looked suspicious” so they “wrote it off as a spam account”.

Ms Patel told The Telegraph: “Not just in my case, but in many cases, this is China making a serious attempt to undermine our democracy and our parliament.

“Clearly, China is not letting up. They are resorting to every single method available to them.”

The warning from MI5 is not thought to have been in response to a specific incident, but rather due to a range of “targeted and widespread” activity.

A Chinese Government spokesman said on Tuesday: “These claims by the UK are pure fabrication and malicious slander.

“We strongly condemn such despicable moves of the UK side and have lodged stern representations with them.

“We urge the UK side to immediately stop this self-staged charade of false accusations and self-aggrandisement, and stop going further down the wrong path of undermining China-UK relations.”