Former No10 chief Dominic Cummings has revealed China stole ‘vast amounts’ of classified material from the government for years.
The Boris Johnson aide said he and the ex-PM were notified of the ‘serious’ breach – involving ‘extremely dangerous’ information – in 2020.
However, they were apparently told that it would be illegal to disclose what had happened.
The dramatic intervention came amid a mounting row over relations with China – and in particular the collapse of a spying trial.
Mr Cummings told The Times the breach involved so-called ‘Strap’ material – the most sensitive level of classification.
‘The cabinet secretary said, ‘We have to explain something; there’s been a serious problem’, and he talked through what this was,’ he said.
‘And it was so bizarre that, not just Boris, a few people in the room were looking around like this — ‘Am I somehow misunderstanding what he’s saying? Because it sounds f***ing crazy’.’
Mr Cummings added: ‘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.’
Dominic Cummings said he and the ex-PM were notified of the ‘serious’ breach – involving ‘extremely dangerous’ information – in 2020
Mr Cummings refused to say how the system had been breached.
‘If the MPs want to finally have an inquiry about it, I’d be happy to talk about it,’ he said.
‘And many people know that what I’m saying is true and many people will back it up.
‘And many people know that after the PM was notified about this in 2020, officials from the Cabinet Office then went round telling everybody in the meeting that it was illegal for them to discuss this with the media.’
The Spectator also published claims on Wednesday that foreign spying scandals in Britain have been hushed up.
One source told the magazine: ‘There were two very serious cases, one involving China and one Russia, which were swept under the carpet.
‘There was a serious loss of technical data.’
Another source said: ‘The levels of penetration and activity is way more than has been disclosed publicly.’
It was also reported that China purchased a company that controlled a data hub used by Whitehall departments to exchange information, including on highly classified projects.
An insider branded the episode as ‘a stratospheric f***-up’.
The claims emerged soon after Sir Keir Starmer promised to publish key evidence that forms part of the collapsed China spying case.
The Crown Prosecution Service said the case collapsed because the Government’s evidence did not show that China represented a threat to national security at the time of the alleged offences.
But Sir Keir insisted the ‘substantive’ evidence was submitted under the Conservatives and supplementary statements handed to the CPS subsequently reflected the Tory administration’s position.
The PM told the House of Commons he intends to publish witness statements prepared by Matt Collins, the deputy national security adviser, in full.
Friends of Mr Collins told The Spectator he did provide evidence which would have been sufficient and he ‘doesn’t understand’ why the case was dropped.
They said: ‘He provided all of these evidence statements. He was told by the CPS that this was exactly what they needed, and then at the last minute they said they were not pursuing the prosecution.
‘The guilty men and women are in fact in the CPS. They’re the ones who’ve dropped the ball.’
Mr Cummings called it ‘absolutely puerile nonsense’ to suggest that whether to define China as a threat is a ‘difficult semantic question’.
‘Anyone who has been read in at a high level with the intelligence services on China knows that the word threat doesn’t even begin to cover it,’ he said.
