Deputy PM Oliver Dowden is expected to take the dramatic step of accusing Beijing of being behind a hack that accessed the personal details of 40million Brits.
Rishi Sunak warned that Britain must 'defend ourselves' today as ministers prepare to blame China for cyberattacks on the elections watchdog and MPs.
Officials could be subject to sanctions, with the action likely to be coordinated with other Western countries. Speaking at an engineering firm in Barrow, Mr Sunak said: 'We've been very clear that the situation now is that China is behaving in an increasingly assertive way abroad, authoritarian at home and it represents an epoch-defining challenge, and also the greatest state-based threat to our economic security.He would not be drawn on the hacking announcement, saying: 'When it comes to cyber, we have the National Cyber Security Centre, which is world leading.
They include former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former minister Tim Loughton, crossbench peer Lord Alton and SNP MP Stewart McDonald. 'But the trouble with the Chinese Communist Party government is that you have to call them out, you have to stand up to them and there have to be consequences. But China's Foreign Ministry said Beijing is a 'main target' of hacking, suggesting that the UK needed to cooperate more.
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