The alleged spy, known as (Image: Getty)
has said it will name the who had a close business relationship with if a legal order to conceal his identity is not lifted this week.
said he will look to use parliamentary privilege to name the individual who was banned from entering the UK on national security grounds by former .
Known only as “H6” due to an anonymity order, the individual is understood to have been a “close confidant” of and was connected to the Chinese branch of the Duke’s Pitch@Palace venture.
Despite the anonymity order, an individual’s name has been widely shared on social media as well as by an American news organisation which publishes English-language coverage of Asia.
But naming the person in parliament would allow his identity to be reported by British media and would allow the person who does so to avoid any legal repercussions thanks to parliamentary privilege.
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, the deputy Reform leader, told The Telegraph: “If he is not named beforehand, we will be looking to use parliamentary privilege later this week.
“The media should be asking: why is this name being protected and covered up? What is the British establishment scared of and trying to hide?
“Just come clean to us all, otherwise it looks like a stitch-up and a cover-up.”
Parliamentary privilege provides MPs and peers with legal protection for comments made in the chamber, meaning that they cannot be prosecuted or sued for statements they make.
This right to free expression was used in 2011 when Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming named the footballer Ryan Giggs as the anonymous celebrity who had prevented the media from reporting details of an alleged affair with an injunction.
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Most recently, the privilege was used after the Russian invasion of in 2022 when Bob Seely, who was a Tory MP at the time, used parliamentary privilege to name and shame “amoral” British lawyers he said allowed “henchmen” to silence a free press.
The scandal comes just weeks after met with at the G20 summit.
Proceedings in the Commons start today at 2.30pm with work and pensions questions but there is a chance that an urgent question could be tabled.
If accepted by speak a government minister would be compelled to answer it, thus giving a backbench MP the opportunity to name the individual involved.