Last week turned out to be rather a busier end to the Parliamentary session before the Easter recess than anticipated, thanks to the Chinese. Along with other MPs sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Government exactly 3 years ago now I was summoned for a security briefing by the Parliamentary security team.
It came as very little surprise that I had been the subject of an attempted hack by the Chinese authorities a couple of years ago. It was a little more surprising that I was 1 of 43 people in Parliament who had been targeted and that they had also tried to access the records of the Electoral Commission. What is different this time is that the UK Government through our intelligence services proactively identified the Chinese Government as the perpetrators and has taken retaliatory measures.
Although the 5 sanctioned MPs are all Conservative, the original list also included Labour peer and international human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy and Crossbench peer Lord David Alton. A barrister and academic were also sanctioned at the same time together with several institutions including the Conservative Human Rights Commission, meaning that I have effectively been doubly sanctioned as I chair the Commission! This latest cyber attack appears to be non-discriminatory as to party and we subsequently held a packed press conference with my colleague Iain Duncan Smith and SNP Stewart McDonald who is also on the Russian target list.
This attack on our democratic institutions is serious and completely unacceptable and underlines the active threat that the Chinese Communist authorities pose to the UK and other western democracies as we have been saying for some time now. Hopefully our government is waking up to this threat although it will have to do better than just sanctioning just 2 low-ranking officials and a small Chinese business.
Congratulations to Lancing Parish Council for another successful Easter Fair and Easter egg hunt in the village last Saturday. It was absolutely packed and over 400 eggs were given away to excited children courtesy of suitably attired councillors and generous sponsors.
