Westminster has been rocked by a major spying scandal after MI5 accused a Labour donor of being a suspected Chinese agent targeting MPs.

Chinese national Christine Lee is accused of trying to influence Labour MP and Jeremy Corbyn ally Barry Gardiner, as well as a host of others.

The Security Services issued an alert and picture of Lee today and accused her of "facilitating financial donations to serving and aspiring politicians."

She has been a long-time funder of Labour MP Barry Gardiner’s office through her law firm Christine Lee & Co, which also works for the Chinese Embassy in London.

Since 2005, Ms Lee has donated £675,586.88 to either Mr Gardiner's office or the Labour Party.

Donations began in September 2015, soon after Brent North MP's Mr Gardiner became shadow minister for energy.

They included £182,284 that pays the wages of two of Mr Gardiner’s Westminster aides — one of whom is Christine Lee’s son, Daniel Wilkes.

But a bombshell warning sent to MPs and Peers by the security services today warns Christine Lee has been attempting to influence politicians from across the political divide.

Christine Lee has been monitored by the security services for some time but has not been arrested and is not being expelled as it stands. She is a west London solicitor who has donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to former Labour minister Barry Gardiner, with her son, Daniel Wilkes, working in his office. He reportedly quit his role only this morning.

Iain Duncan Smith told the Commons that Speaker Lindsay Hoyle has written to MPs to let them know he has been contacted by MI5 over the matter.

Raising a point of order, he told MPs: “I understand that Mr Speaker has been contacted by MI5 and is now warning members of Parliament that there has been an agent of the Chinese government active here in Parliament working with a Member of Parliament, obviously to subvert the processes here.”

He said he understood MI5 has contacted Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle about the matter.


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