A Labour grandee tipped off police about the alleged China spy ring which has rocked the Government.
Scotland Yard launched an investigation into an MP’s husband and two former Labour advisers after receiving a tip-off from a senior party figure who was concerned that lines may have been crossed.
The influential figure, whom the Daily Mail is not naming, is understood to have contacted GCHQ several months ago alleging that Beijing was offering payments in return for insights on UK policies and other sensitive information.
As a result, detectives launched a major investigation, resulting in the arrest of David Taylor, 39 – the husband of Labour MP Joani Reid – Matthew Aplin, 43, and Steve Jones, 68. They are all accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service.
Following the arrests, security minister Dan Jarvis 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.’
The three suspects have been released on bail while inquiries continue. Police have searched their properties, including Taylor’s £1.9million Georgian townhouse in Lambeth, just across the river from the Houses of Parliament.
Labour has suspended Taylor and his wife, the MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven who has voluntarily given up the party whip pending an internal investigation. She said: ‘I have done nothing wrong’, adding: ‘I am voluntarily suspending myself from the whip and will not sit as a Labour MP until internal investigations are concluded.’
Taylor describes himself as a ‘trusted adviser to government leaders and prominent executives worldwide’ who has previously worked as a country envoy to Cop26 working to ‘promote collaboration between world leaders’.
Labour MP Joani Reid and her husband, lobbyist David Taylor, who was arrested on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service
Matthew Aplin, a former journalist and Welsh Labour government employee, was also arrested on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service following a tip-off from a senior Labour source to GCHQ
He has advised foreign governments on policy issues, including Malta, Trinidad and Tobago, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. Since 2024, Taylor has been head of programmes at the Asia House think-tank, which develops engagement between Asia and Europe.
Asia House is the secretariat to the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for central Asia, meaning it connects policymakers, businesses and institutions to enhance understanding of the region’s emerging opportunities.
Announcing Taylor’s appointment, the think-tank described him as a ‘former senior political adviser to the UK Labour Party’ who ‘offers unique insights into the new UK government’s approach to trade and international relations’.
Yvette Cooper gave a speech at an event hosted by Asia House in one of her first public engagements as Foreign Secretary, with diplomats from 40 countries said to have been in attendance.
Taylor has travelled to China several times to speak to a think-tank and attend conferences. In 2023, he went with a veteran journalist on an all-expenses-paid trip to meet a think-tank reporting to president Xi Jinping.
The pair travelled to Hong Kong where they met a man known as Michael who quizzed them about British attitudes to China and trade opportunities while taking them on various sightseeing trips.
Journalist Martin Shipton, 72, who went on the trip, said: ‘It was presented to me that a think-tank was involved in briefing president Xi on international relations and basically they wanted to have chats with us about perceptions of China in Britain.
‘They paid for the trip but it was a sightseeing jolly really, there was no interrogation. I didn’t think for a moment it was anything to do with espionage.’