UK's sovereignty at risk if Huawei is allowed for 5G, warns Mike Pompeo

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said that United Kingdom's sovereignty is at risk if Chinese firm Huawei is allowed to develop 5G infrastructure in the country. 

The US administration has repeatedly warned its allies not to allow the Chinese company to develop 5G infrastructure in their countries, claiming it would be a security risk considering the company's close links to the Chinese government. 

Also read: Trump, Johnson talk telecoms security ahead of Huawei decision

Huawei has repeatedly denied the allegations that its equipment could be used to spy on people.

Pompeo wrote on Twitter on Sunday night: “The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G.

“British MP Tom Tugendhat gets it right: ‘The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign’.”

The secretary of state retweeted a comment by Tugendhat, the chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee in the last parliament, in which the Conservative MP said: “Sovereignty means control of data as much as land. We need to decide what we’re willing to invest in and who we are willing to share our tech with.

“The real costs will come later if we get this wrong and allow Huawei to run 5G.”

Pompeo’s last-ditch attempt follows Boris Johnson-led Conservative government signalling that it believed Huawei kit was needed to ensure that the 5G mobile network was affordable. However, the government is expected to agree to new restrictions on the tech giant, reported UK newspaper The Guardian.

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Furthermore, Britain’s spy agencies believe that any risk that Huawei technology could be compromised by the Chinese government to carry out surveillance can be mitigated, the report added. 

Pompeo is due to meet Boris Johnson and the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, in London on Wednesday.