Last night’s 1922 committee meeting with backbenchers and Lord Cameron didn’t appease the China hawks the way it intended. Much of the meeting was consumed by anger over the government still labelling China as a mere “challenge“. Not least Sir Iain Duncan Smith saying the position was like “an elephant giving birth to a mouse”…

It seems fury from the backbenches has hit home. This morning on Times Radio Education Secretary Gillian Keegan conceded that China was indeed a “security threat“. Perhaps because of latest revelations exposed by an unprecedented joint operation by Washington and London that there’s been a decade-long campaign of Chinese espionage…

Now it looks like Deputy Prime Minister Dowden will declare China as threat, telling MPs “we are currently in the process of collective Government agreement”. What will Lord Cameron say?

A Times source tells Guido that they are surprised that the rest of the media is not naming Chris Cash as the person arrested on suspicion of spying for the Chinese. They believe there is a strong public interest case for naming the person who had access to parliamentarians, civil servants and think-tankers active on China issues.

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader sanctioned by China, nailed it: “It’s a remarkably dangerous situation. This is a guy who allegedly spies on behalf of the Chinese government in the place where decisions are made and sensitive information is transferred. It is vitally important that he is named because many people who came into contact with this individual will be unaware that he has been arrested on suspicion of espionage. There is a clear public interest.”

Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Alicia Kearns’ ally told The Times defensively “Preposterous suggestions that Alicia should have breached all police and intelligence requests not to discuss this case could only come from individuals with zero understanding of legal investigations or intelligence work.” Spooks like to do things secretly.

Cash issued a statement via the law firm Birnberg Peirce; “I feel forced to respond to the media accusations that I am a ‘Chinese spy’. It is wrong that I should be obliged to make any form of public comment on the misreporting that has taken place. However, given what has been reported, it is vital that it is known that I am completely innocent. I have spent my career to date trying to educate others about the challenge and threats presented by the Chinese Communist Party.  To do what has been claimed against me in extravagant news reporting would be against everything I stand for.” Even if he isn’t charged or is found innocent, there is still a public interest in open justice. People getting arrested in secret, unreported by the press, is a hallmark of police states.

Guido didn’t name Chris Cash last night because we assumed there must be a good reason papers were holding back. In retrospect we made a mistake.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has defended the government’s willingness to engage with China ahead of his visit to Beijing tomorrow. Despite Rishi’s declaration that China is an “epoch-defining challenge” – a downgrade from “a threat” – Cleverly will be the first Foreign Secretary to visit China in five years, and insisted he won’t conduct foreign policy “by catchphrase“.

“To consciously withdraw and not utilise our standing in the world, the authority and voice that we have, that would be seen as a sign of weakness, not a sign of strength… Give me one example of any other country in the world where we define our relationship with a single word or a catchphrase. We don’t do it.”

A few notable Tory backbenchers, including Iain Duncan Smith and Liz Truss, have already argued it’s too late to bring China to the negotiating table, and should designate the Communist Party as a “dangerous threat“. Cleverly is taking a softer approach, hoping that keeping them inside the tent will decrease hostility. The US is already restricting investment into Chinese technology – something the Foreign Office seemingly isn’t keen on. Even if China may have tracked the PM’s government car this year…

The Telegraph have quietly corrected an article by Iain Duncan Smith published in March, after press watchdog IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation) ruled IDS had written an “inaccurate” claim about home schooling after Covid. The offending claim has since been deleted entirely from the text…

The article previously contained the following sentence:

“Some children are now being schooled at home. Whilst a number will be receiving a good education, sadly evidence shows that’s not true for the majority.”

According to IPSO, that evidence doesn’t actually exist. The Telegraph have now added:

“This article previously reported that evidence showed the majority of children schooled at home did not receive a good education. This was inaccurate as there was no available evidence to support the claim. This correction has been published following an upheld ruling by the Independent Press Standards Organisation.”

IDS is obviously right to push for improving children’s education. Kids are better off inside the classroom than outside it. Always best to show your workings though…

China hawk Iain Duncan Smith has warned that the Communist Party used hidden tracking devices in government cars to follow the Prime Minister’s movements, before the cars were stripped and the devices were quietly removed. Speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC, IDS revealed:

“It was never absolutely confirmed, of course they wouldn’t do for security reasons, but I’m pretty reliably told that they had to strip out the cars to find the devices based in the little SIMs, and they were capable and were tracking the cars and the car journeys. They have capability to be able to throw the switch, as it were, on batteries et cetera, as and when they wish.”

Last month the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) of MPs published a report claiming China has “successfully penetrated every sector of the UK’s economy“, and the government has “no strategy” to stop it. Even if the government makes a U-turn on this soon, it looks like China will know about it before anyone else…