Former Conservative chief Sir Iain Duncan Smith mentioned that his understanding was that the suspected spy had not been turned whereas already working in Parliament.

His feedback got here as Rishi Sunak was coming underneath rising strain to take a more durable line in opposition to Beijing.

Speaking on Talk TV, Sir Iain mentioned: “As I understand it, this individual isn’t a person that has just been turned, gently in the background...somebody who was actually sent specifically by the Chinese government to spy on us and create dissension.”

This declare couldn't be confirmed by safety sources.

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The man, in his 20s, was arrested in Edinburgh, and one other suspect, in his 30s, was detained in Oxfordshire on March 13, Scotland Yard mentioned. Searches had been additionally carried out in an east London property.

Both had been held on suspicion of offences underneath Section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, which punishes offences which are mentioned to be “prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state”.

Neither males have thus far been charged with any offences.

Just weeks in the past, Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee warned of the risk from China.

In a report in July, the ISC confused that it had been advised that “there had been cases of China offering to supply research staff”.

It added: “In ***, MI5 investigations of the activities of several Chinese intelligence officers working *** in the UK, identified one of the intelligence officers gaining access to at least one UK Parliamentarian ***.”

As the spying storm grew, the Commons authorities confronted calls to tighten vetting procedures.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Tory deputy chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary China Group, advised the Standard: “Anybody in any capacity who is applying for a parliamentary pass should be very carefully vetted before they are granted if they have any connection with hostile regimes.”

On present checks, he added: “Whatever it is, it’s clearly not tough enough.”

The alleged spy is known to have had contact with various MPs together with Tom Tugendhat, earlier than he turned safety minister, and Alicia Kearns, chair of the Commons overseas affairs committee.

The ISC highlighted the dimensions of the Chinese spying operation in opposition to Britain’s political, enterprise, defence and college sectors.

But Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch mentioned she is “extremely confident” about her personal employees after the arrest of the parliamentary researcher on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

“I’m extremely confident about the people who work for me. They come from my local constituency, they’re people who have worked for me for many years,” she advised Times Radio.

“We do have security vetting in Parliament. This is an ongoing investigation - this will be for the security services to answer the details in terms of when this was known and how this person managed to get the work that he was doing.”

She added: “And I’m very confident in our security services. I’m very confident in the work that the Government is doing on economic security and investment screening.”

Shadow house secretary Yvette Cooper mentioned the arrests raised “huge questions” for the work of Parliament, and mentioned they underscored Labour’s calls for for a register of political donations from overseas states.

Noting Monday’s anniversary of 9/11, she advised Times Radio that that assault had led Tony Blair’s authorities to create a complete counter-terror technique referred to as Contest.

“We have none of that around the risks to national security from states. We don’t have the proper comprehensive strategy to deal with whether that be the political interference from China, whether that be about cyber attacks from Russia, whether it be about attacks on UK soil from the Iranian-sponsored IRGC, we don’t have that comprehensive strategy around state threats to our national security,” she mentioned.

But Ms Cooper additionally refused to name China a “threat”, noting the necessity to work collectively on points resembling local weather change.

The Commons alleged spy furore led to the Prime Minister confronting Chinese premier Li Qiang on the G20 summit in India on Sunday over “unacceptable” interference in democracy.