Dominic Cummings has claimed that China breached high level systems to obtain “vast amounts” of classified government information for years.
Boris Johnson’s former adviser said he and the then-Prime Minister were told about the breach in 2020 and that it involved so-called Strap material, a government classification for highly sensitive intelligence material.
He said that fundamental infrastructure for transferring sensitive data around the British state was compromised “for years.”
Mr Cummings did not say how the system had been breached but that he would be willing to share what he knew with MPs if they were to hold an inquiry.
He told The Times: “What I’m saying is that some Strap stuff was compromised and vast amounts of data classified as extremely secret and extremely dangerous for any foreign entity to control was compromised.
“Material from intelligence services. Material from the National Security Secretariat in the Cabinet Office. Things the government has to keep secret. If they’re not secret, then there are very, very serious implications for it.”
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “It is untrue to claim that the systems we use to transfer the most sensitive government information have been compromised.”
One former Whitehall official told The Telegraph Mr Cummings’s characterisation of what happened was “utter nonsense” but agreed that security breaches had occurred.
The source did not deny that Mr Johnson commissioned a report from Lord Sedwill, his cabinet secretary and national security adviser, on how the Chinese had been able to buy a company that controlled a data hub used by Whitehall.
Kelvin Mackenzie: Labour get ‘applause’ for echoing Reform UK
Kelvin Mackenzie has hit out at the “hypocrisy of this socialist shower” over comments about Britain’s broken borders.
The former Editor of The Sun has said he is “beyond frustrated” with the current state of the country and Labour’s approach to the border system.
GB NEWS MEMBERS CAN READ KELVIN’S ANALYSIS HERE.
UK economy GROWS in August in boost for Rachel Reeves with Britain ‘finding its feet’
Britain’s economy grew in the three months to August, following a zero growth month for July, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.
This will come as a relief to Labour, as growth was central to their core manifesto pledges, an improvement on the economic data for July.
Figures saw a slight increase following growth of 0.1 per cent compared to the figures in July.
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