UK police mentioned Saturday they’d arrested a person in his twenties for spying, with the Sunday Times reporting he was a researcher in Britain’s parliament suspected of working for China.

“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,” mentioned the drive.

“A man in his 30s was arrested at an address in Oxfordshire and a man in his 20s was arrested at an address in Edinburgh.”

The Sunday Times mentioned the suspect in his twenties had contacts with MPs from the ruling Conservative Party whereas working as a parliamentary researcher. They included Security Minister Tom Tugendhat and Alicia Kearns, the chairman of the Commons international affairs committee.

He is a Briton who has labored on worldwide coverage, together with relations with Beijing, and beforehand labored in China, the paper added.

If confirmed, it could signify one of the critical breaches of safety involving a hostile state on the UK’s parliament.

Domestic intelligence service MI5 final yr warned {that a} feminine Chinese authorities agent known as Christine Lee had been “engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, engaging with members here at parliament”.

In July the Commons intelligence and safety committee claimed that China was concentrating on the UK “prolifically and aggressively” and that the federal government didn’t have the “resources, expertise or knowledge” to take care of it.

Tugendhat is reported to have solely had restricted contact with the suspect, and none whereas safety minister.