[ad_1] A British parliamentary researcher understood to have had links to MPs with classified information has been arrested on suspicion of spying f
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A British parliamentary researcher understood to have had links to MPs with classified information has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China.
The man, in his late twenties, is linked to senior Conservative MPs including security minister Tom Tugenhat and Commons foreign affairs committee chair Alicia Kearns.
The researcher is understood to have been close to several Conservative MPs, The Sun reported.
He is claimed to have gained access to several politicians privy to classified or highly sensitive information in what is thought to be one of the biggest-ever spying breaches at Westminster.
The researcher is understood to be British with a parliamentary pass who worked on China policy with top MPs.
Counter-terror cops arrested the researcher in Edinburgh on March 13, with another man in his thirties collared in Oxfordshire the same day.
Both “residential properties” were searched along with an East London address. The pair have been bailed after they were taken to a south London police station.
They were arrested under the United Kingdom’s action 11 of the Official Secrets Act, which makes it an offence to pass on information which may be “prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state” – or “intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy”.
A Whitehall source told The Sunday Times: “This is a major escalation by China. We have never seen anything like this before.”
The Met said: “Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service arrested two men on 13 March on suspicion of offences under section 1 of the Official Secrets Act, 1911.
This article originally appeared in The Sun was republished with permission.
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