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Household items from fridges to cars that contain Chinese electronics may be at risk of being accessed remotely, the new chair of Britain’s cross-party coalition on secure technology has warned.
Labour MP Graeme Downie urged ministers to encourage UK manufacturing capacity for cellular modules used in the “internet of things” in order to defend against the risk of cyber attacks.
Connected devices including smart meters, mobile payment terminals, electric cars and civilian drones all formed a “soft underbelly of infrastructure” that China could target, he warned.
“We’re not taking that threat seriously at the moment. We just need to make sure we’re much more alive to it in the future,” Downie told the Financial Times.
“These devices collect data, they transmit information. They’re not hackable but they are theoretically controllable — you can disrupt, if nothing else,” he added in an interview.
Downie, who was appointed chair of the coalition on secure technology in November, has intervened on the issue in the House of Commons.
He is one of several Labour MPs first elected last summer who have voiced concerns about China, a subject on which hawkish Conservative MPs have traditionally been more outspoken.
Downie revealed he had also raised the matter privately with foreign secretary David Lammy this month, who he said promised to “look into [it] more”.
Officials have told Downie the matter is being examined as part of a cross-Whitehall China audit led by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. But he warned: “I don’t think there’s clarity around timescale, what it [the audit] is and how it’s reporting, and what the actions are going to be.”
The coalition on secure technology was launched in 2023 by Charles Parton, a former senior UK diplomat who spent more than two decades dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and Tory peer Baroness Natalie Evans, former leader of the House of Lords.
It aims to raise awareness about and tackle the potential risk of Beijing using electronic wireless components in smart devices to conduct espionage or sabotage.
Three Chinese companies are responsible for more than 50 per cent of the global market in cellular modules used in the growing network of interconnected devices, according to the group.
The British government has ordered the removal of all technology made by the Chinese company Huawei from the UK 5G network by the end of 2027, citing security concerns.
This month the UK Ministry of Defence ordered military chiefs to avoid conducting sensitive conversations in Chinese-made electric cars, amid fears that inbuilt microphones could record and transmit chatter, a development first reported by The Sun.
“Everyday things that we’re just used to working — what if they didn’t work for a period of time, or what if they were disrupted in some co-ordinated way? It might not immediately be obvious that they’re being disrupted,” Downie said.
The MP contrasted such a scenario with the “big, high-scale” denial of service attacks mounted on websites in the early 2000s, which “you could identify easily as being an attack”. These cyber attacks involve overwhelming a server with internet traffic in order to make it inaccessible.
He acknowledged that the potential disruption to smart devices “doesn’t feel an immediate military threat”, but said the issue needed more attention in Whitehall.
Downie’s intervention comes as the government continues to step up its diplomatic engagement with Beijing. Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Lammy have visited China in recent months, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer looking at travelling to the mainland later this year.
Last week, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi came to London for a day of talks with Lammy as part of a new strategic dialogue between the two countries.
Cellular modules are “vital to national life”, Downie said, describing his campaign as “not about confronting China or blocking technology” but ensuring the UK has sufficient “procurement protections”.
It is also an “opportunity to create our own industry” in cellular modules and similar devices by encouraging more investment, he added.
A British government spokesperson said: “The UK already has one of the most robust product security regimes in the world and research is continuing to help us identify new areas of vulnerability as technology develops and target policy work.
“We are committed to continuing to bolster cyber defences to protect British people and businesses, which is why we will be introducing the Cyber Security and Resilience bill later this year.”
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