We teach our RAF to be the best – we can’t let them train rivals such as China to defeat us

WE’VE always trained the best. The heroes who defend our skies have gone through the toughest tests to take our fighting tech to the limit and make our rivals think twice.

British Top Guns are rightly admired all over the world.

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Our rivals want to pay for what they can’t match — the talents in the RAF that put us at the top[/caption]

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Reports are claiming that China is trying to pay more than £200,000 for our Top Guns to teach them to fight[/caption]

Now our rivals want to pay for what they can’t match — the talents that put us at the top.

China’s communist leadership have already shown that they are willing to do it. Reports are claiming that they are trying to pay more than £200,000 for our Top Guns to teach them to fight.

That’s a huge sum, but paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to hire ex-RAF pilots is cheap for them.

They’re getting for days and dollars the tricks and techniques that took decades and danger to learn.

Damages our interests

Worse, it is teaching a nation that threatens allies such as Japan how to out-gun and out-fly their pilots.

We need to make sure, along with our allies, we’re not teaching anyone skills or providing information that weakens our friends or damages our interests.

That is why we are taking decisive action, looking at new tools to protect our national security and our people.

We don’t have a problem with our ex-Forces people doing well.
They are exceptional individuals and it’s right they should have every chance to succeed. We also need many to work with our friends and allies.

For centuries, we’ve sent sailors to train our allies, and soldiers to defend our friends.

We often allowed them to do it as retired civilians, not under orders. But some people are trying to exploit them and undermine Britain.

We need to be clear that serving our rivals puts our country at risk. This activity — hidden by clauses and contracts — has been going on for years.

It is time it ended. We can’t be paying to train those who are teaching others to fight us. And this isn’t just about our military.

Civilians with skills or information they learned as researchers or engineers — and even some politicians — are proving attractive to other states who are willing to pay a high price.

That’s making trouble for the future. Our rivals are learning how to defeat us. That has got to stop. We need to think again about the duties we all have.

That is why the Government’s new National Security Bill is so important.

We are introducing new laws to keep Britain safe. We’re looking to close down the loopholes that let some claim they didn’t know. And we are going to make it crystal clear what Britain expects of our fellow citizens.

Because we need an open economy. We need Brits to be free to work wherever they want to in the world and profit from their skills and ideas.

But we can’t do that without a secure base at home. We need to build transparency and resilience.

So we are updating our espionage laws to better protect sensitive information and protect our trade secrets.

We are going to require all those working at the direction of a foreign state to register where they are carrying out any activities in the UK which may have a political influence.

The British people have the right to know who those lobbying their representatives really work for.

Of course, embassies should make their case — they’re public about who they are — but how many individuals are working for companies controlled by a foreign state and lobbying for the interests of a foreign power they haven’t declared?

We will also be able to add more activities to be registered if they’re carried out at the direction of a foreign power or entity, where Parliament decides it is in our interests.

Shining a light on problem

We have the right to know. I’ve been calling for increasing transparency for years, so I’m pleased to be the minister putting it into law.

This Government is going to be able to force people to declare their work for foreign powers.

Shining a light on the problem and gathering data will make it easier for us all to know who is working for whom — right up to the top. It will bring transparency.

In the US, laws like this have been around since 1938. In Australia, who recently introduced similar rules, they are exposing people who turned out to be paid by China to lobby against the interests of the Aussie people.

We are doing the same.

After years of calling for these laws to be implemented as chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, it’s time they were in place.

As Security Minister, this has been my priority and is the first Bill I’ve worked on in the Home Office.

The world has changed and our rivals are now looking to buy what they could never afford to learn. That’s a lesson we must all take on to keep Britain safe.