U.K. Huawei Leak Exposes Post-Brexit Security Peril
Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson was fired, but that won’t solve problems created by Britain’s fraying global links.
Having a bad day.
Photographer: Alberto Pezzali/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesIt takes a lot to delight your enemies, infuriate your friends and alienate those you are trying to build new ties with. But in its public divisions over Chinese telecommunications maker Huawei, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Theresa May has managed to do just that. If this is a first peek at the way a post-Brexit Britain plans to conduct itself in world affairs, it’s not a great look.
Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson, who was fired on Wednesday night, has furiously denied the government’s finding that he leaked a National Security Council decision to allow Huawei to build “non-core” parts of the U.K.’s 5G mobile network. The decision, not yet formalized, found its way into the Daily Telegraph.