MI5 alert on alleged Chinese mole may have been to distract

MP Barry Gardiner told Christine Lee, who is bringing action against Security Service, of suggestion it was trying to shift attention from scandal

A Labour MP and key ally of Jeremy Corbyn claimed it had been suggested that MI5 issued a rare alert notice about a lawyer who the Security Service believed was a Chinese mole as a distraction from Partygate, a tribunal has heard.

The Security Service issued an interference alert against Christine Lee in 2022, the day after Boris Johnson apologised for the Partygate scandal, warning MPs that she was a suspected Chinese agent who had engaged in “political interference activities” on behalf of a branch of the Chinese Communist party (CCP).