British spy chiefs warn political parties on foreign interference

LONDON – Britain’s top spies have warned political parties of the dangers posed by foreign interference ranging from financial donations to honey traps.

MI5 director general Ken McCallum and National Cyber Security Centre chief executive officer Richard Horne held the first-of-a-kind security briefing for officials from all British political parties last week, according to a statement on Feb 9 from the Cabinet Office.

Political leaders were told how foreign players can deploy funding and investment as tools to gain influence while hiding their true motives, as well as use other tactics including coercion and sex.

The move comes amid growing concerns about the vulnerability of Britain’s democracy to foreign donations and bribes.

The government is already examining the role of cryptocurrencies in political finance as part of a review chaired by former senior civil servant Philip Rycroft that aims to report by March, and feed into legislation later in 2026.

The issue came to the fore late in 2025 when Nathan Gill, a former Welsh leader of Mr Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, was convicted of taking bribes in exchange for making statements in favour of Russia while serving as a Member of the European Parliament. 

The Financial Times reported that Reform has also come under scrutiny over a £200,000 (S$346,000) donation it had received from a design company linked to an Iranian billionaire.

It said Mr Liam Byrne, the Labour MP who chairs the backbench Business and Trade Committee, had asked the Companies House registry to investigate the firm’s ownership.

Nevertheless, the Cabinet Office stressed that its aim was to alert all parties, “underscoring a non-partisan commitment to recognising and resisting attempts to manipulate the political process and our democratic values”.

Mr Farage, for his part, said last week that the firm in question was not one of his contacts. 

“Most of the donors I know, certainly all of the big donors I know,” he said in a press conference. “I didn’t know this individual, but I did look at the story. Did check it out with our compliance department. Everything’s legal. Everything’s above board.”

The spy agencies also held a separate briefing for the vice-chancellors of more than 70 British universities to advise them on how foreign actors seek to shape and censor research or teaching, as well as give guidance on how academics can resist and report it, according to the statement. 

At that event, Mr McCallum “detailed the sophisticated methods used by hostile actors to shape research and teaching content in higher education, including the use of professional networking sites and financial lures to cultivate relationships with academic staff and students”, according to the statement.  

That event was also attended by Security Minister Dan Jarvis and Skills Minister Jacqui Smith, with the government setting up an Academic Interference Reporting Route to enable universities to directly report suspected interference to the government.

“We’ve taken tough action to make the UK a harder target for foreign interference,” Mr Jarvis said in the statement. “We have to be clear-eyed that our world-class universities and democratic processes are being targeted by states who want to undermine our way of life.” BLOOMBERG