British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s
Conservative government narrowly defeated
an attempt led by some of its own lawmakers
to ban China’s Huawei from building part of the
U.K.’s high-speed telecommunications network.
Three dozen Conservative lawmakers backed a
call to bar “high risk” firms such as Huawei from
any involvement in the network after 2022.
The move, which came in an amendment to
a telecoms bill, was defeated by 306 votes
to 282 in the House of Commons, where the
Conservatives have an 80-seat majority. Some 36
Tories rebelled.
Britain angered the United States when it
announced in January that it would let Huawei
supply parts of its next-generation cellular
networks, known as 5G.