China Targeted Downing Street Phones For Years; Aides To Sunak, Johnson Spied On: Report

Last Updated:January 27, 2026, 21:08 IST

The report claims phones used by senior aides to UK prime ministers were targeted in a years-long cyber-espionage operation.

A report has alleged a hacking campaign targeting Downing Street phones. Former UK prime ministers Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, are seen in this representational image. (IMAGE: REUTERS)

China hacked the mobile phones of senior officials in Downing Street for several years as part of a state-backed espionage operation, according to a report by UK-based newspaper The Telegraph.

The report, released on Tuesday, said Chinese hackers targeted the phones of senior government figures and close aides to former prime ministers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak between 2021 and 2024.

The operation is understood to have penetrated “deep into the heart of the British government", the newspaper said, though the report pointed out that it remains unclear whether the mobile phones of the prime ministers themselves were compromised.

The newspaper, citing an unnamed source, said the hacking operation went “right into the heart of Downing Street".

US intelligence told The Telegraph said the Chinese espionage campaign, known as Salt Typhoon, was still ongoing.

That raised concerns that current Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his senior staff may also have been exposed.

The disclosures come ahead of Starmer’s visit to China this week, the first by a British prime minister since 2018, as he seeks to strengthen trade and investment ties with Beijing.

‘Right into the heart of Downing Street’

The trip follows the UK government’s approval of plans for a large Chinese embassy in London, which is set to be located near some of the City’s most sensitive communications infrastructure, according to The Telegraph.

The alleged hacking raises the possibility that Chinese intelligence services may have accessed text messages, call data or other communications involving senior government figures.

Even where calls could not be intercepted, hackers may have obtained metadata, including who officials communicated with, how often and their approximate locations.

According to the report, the Downing Street breach formed part of a broader global espionage campaign by Beijing that targeted multiple countries, including the United States and the other members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance — Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

record phone calls at will

The activity is believed to date back to at least 2021, but intelligence agencies only uncovered it in 2024, after US authorities revealed that hacking groups linked to China had gained access to telecommunications companies around the world.

That breach reportedly gave Chinese intelligence the ability to eavesdrop on calls, read text messages and potentially track users’ movements.

Anne Neuberger, who was then a deputy US national security adviser, said hackers linked to the operation had the ability to “record phone calls at will".

China’s foreign ministry has previously dismissed such allegations as baseless and lacking evidence. It remains unclear what specific information, if any, was obtained from the phones of Downing Street staff.

The Telegraph report said the UK’s telecommunications networks were better protected than those in the US, pointing to the 2021 Telecommunications Security Act, which imposed stricter security obligations on telecoms firms.

However, one senior US official described the breach as “one of the more successful campaigns in the history of espionage" while speaking to the newspaper.

Salt Typhoon

Last year, the FBI warned that Chinese state-sponsored cyber actors were targeting global telecommunications, government and military networks, often maintaining long-term access that could allow them to track targets’ communications and movements.

The public alert was co-signed by agencies including the UK’s Cyber Security Centre, the public-facing arm of GCHQ.

The UK government has so far only acknowledged a “cluster of activity" linked to Salt Typhoon, stopping short of confirming the full scale of the breach.

By contrast, the newspaper’s report pointed out, US officials have publicly said Chinese hackers targeted figures including Donald Trump, JD Vance and Kamala Harris during the 2024 US election campaign.

The newspaper reported that there were multiple hacking attempts involving the phones of Downing Street staff and across wider government, particularly during Rishi Sunak’s tenure as prime minister.

Yuval Wollman, a former Israeli intelligence official and now president of cybersecurity firm CyberProof, described Salt Typhoon as one of the most prominent cyber-espionage operations in the world, telling the newspaper that its activities have extended well beyond the United States into Europe, West Asia and Africa.

News world China Targeted Downing Street Phones For Years; Aides To Sunak, Johnson Spied On: Report

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