The Government has performed a major u-turn over Chinese firm Huawei's involvement in the UK rollout of 5G, following a rebellion led by the Isle of Wight's MP.
Back in March, the Government rejected an amendment put forward by Bob Seely. He wanted to block the controversial telecom company from helping to build the UK's 5G network.
However, speaking in Parliament today (Tuesday), Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden backtracked on proposals, saying UK mobile providers must remove Huawei equipment from their networks by 2027.
Acting on the advice of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Mr Dowden said the UK can "no longer" be confident it can secure security if Huawei remains involved.
Tweeting his reaction, Mr Seely called out Lord Alan Sugar, who previously backed the tech giants.
👉 @Lord_Sugar You’re fired and so is @Huawei #NoWayHuawei pic.twitter.com/pv4XmGeNMx
— Bob Seely (@IoWBobSeely) July 14, 2020
It means that from the end of this year, UK telecoms operators must not buy equipment from Huawei.
Mr Dowden said the news will delay the roll-out of 5G by a further year and could potentially add up to half a billion in cost.
Reacting to the news, Ed Brewster, a spokesperson for Huawei UK, said:
"This disappointing decision is bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone. It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide. Instead of ‘levelling up’ the government is levelling down and we urge them to reconsider. We remain confident that the new US restrictions would not have affected the resilience or security of the products we supply to the UK.
Regrettably our future in the UK has become politicized, this is about US trade policy and not security. Over the past 20 years, Huawei has focused on building a better connected UK. As a responsible business, we will continue to support our customers as we have always done.
"We will conduct a detailed review of what today’s announcement means for our business here and will work with the UK government to explain how we can continue to contribute to a better connected Britain."
The measures are expected to be enshrined in law by a Telecoms Security Bill later today.
More follows.