David Taylor, pictured with his partner Joani Reid, is the head of programmes at a think tank that develops engagement between Asia and Europe.
The partner of a UK Labour MP has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China.
David Taylor, the partner of Joani Reid, was detained by the Metropolitan Police and is being held under the National Security Act.
Two other men were arrested on Wednesday morning – Matthew Aplin, 43, from Pontyclun, South Wales, a former communications officer for Labour; and a 68-year-old from Powys, Wales. All three suspects were held on suspicion of assisting Chinese intelligence.
Searches were carried out at the properties where the arrests were made, as well as at three addresses in London, East Kilbride and Cardiff.
Taylor, born in 1986, is the head of programmes at the Asia House think tank, which promotes engagement between Asia and Europe. He is understood to have worked for energy companies as a lobbyist and as a government special adviser in the Wales Office under the New Labour government.
Reid was elected to the seat of East Kilbride and Strathaven in July 2024, and sits on the Commons home affairs committee. She was born in Glasgow and worked in public policy before entering local government as a councillor in 2014.
Following the arrest, she said: “I have never seen anything to make me suspect my husband has broken any law.”
Aplin, one of the other men arrested, is a former senior communications officer for the Labour Party in the Welsh Assembly who has also worked for the energy regulator Ofgem and the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.
Since February last year he has been working as a senior consultant for Camlas, a Cardiff-based public affairs firm which has offices just “a stone’s throw from the Senedd”, according to its website.
Rhodri ab Owen, the managing director of Camlas, told The Telegraph: “Matthew Aplin has been arrested and so he has been suspended until further notice.
“The police have not been in touch with us at Camras and there are no links between Camras and any Chinese companies or the Chinese government. We are a small Welsh public affairs agency.”
Dan Jarvis, the Security Minister, said British officials had formally approached Chinese counterparts in London and Beijing about the arrests.
He told the Commons: “We remain deeply concerned by an increasing pattern of covert activity from Chinese state-linked actors targeting UK democracy. This involves attempts to obtain information on UK policy-making and interfere with our sovereign affairs.”
Jarvis said there would be a new programme to help British think tanks and non-profit organisations identify possible risks of foreign interference.
Taylor joined Asia House in September 2024. The think tank was founded by Sir Peter Wakefield, a former UK diplomat, in 1996, according to its website.
Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, is among several senior politicians to have addressed the organisation in recent years.
She spoke at an event hosted by Asia House on September 10 last year, alongside Michael Howard, the former Tory leader, and Neil Kinnock, the former Labour leader.
Other politicians to have attended events by the think tank since Taylor’s appointment include the Labour MPs Hamish Falconer, Liam Byrne and Catherine West.
Matt Western, the chairman of the joint committee on the National Security Strategy, warned that Britain was “going to see many, many more cases, potentially, such as this, where there is this evidence of intelligence-gathering undertaken by the Chinese as they seek to undermine our democracy and political system”.
Commander Helen Flanagan, the head of Counter-Terrorism Policing London, said she had seen a significant increase in caseloads relating to national security in recent years.
Taylor’s arrest marks the latest in a series of China-related scandals to hit the Labour Party.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer came under fire for his handling of the trials of Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, who were accused of stealing secrets from Parliament and selling them to senior officials in the Chinese Communist Party. The two men denied the charges, but the trial collapsed last year.
In October, The Telegraph reported that the case fell through because the Government refused to provide evidence that China was an “enemy”, which was required to prosecute the two men under antiquated espionage legislation.
The Government was forced to admit in February that its communication with the Crown Prosecution Service had contributed to the case’s collapse, and committed to reviewing its procedures.
Labour has also given the go-ahead to plans for a Chinese super-embassy in London, despite a Telegraph investigation into a concealed chamber that sat alongside fibre-optic cables transmitting financial data to the City of London.
The same hidden room is to be fitted with hot-air extraction systems, possibly suggesting the installation of heat-generating equipment such as advanced computers used for espionage.
Britain’s spy chiefs have warned that they could not “wholly eliminate” risks from China’s new embassy.
Labour declined to comment.
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