Ultimatum to cabinet ministers in Huawei leak investigation

Senior figures in Theresa May's cabinet deny role in leaking details of vote in National Security Council meeting

Cabinet members who were at Tuesday's National Security Council (NSC) have been sent an ultimatum by Whitehall's most powerful official to confess or deny whether they leaked a controversial decision to allow Chinese telecoms firm Huawei to help build the UK's 5G phone network.

Cabinet secretary Sir Mark Sedwill is understood to have written to those present and demanded that they tell him by 2pm on Thursday whether they were involved and would be willing to cooperate with an inquiry, prompting the five prime suspects to scramble to "categorically deny" that they were behind the leak.