Harborough Parliamentary Aide Targeted By Chinese ‘Spy’

A Market Harborough-based parliamentary aide targeted by a suspected Chinese spy has described the incident as ‘really worrying’.

Simon Whelband is a senior researcher for Harborough’s Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, who has previously been sanctioned by Beijing for being critical of China.

Simon Whelband

He discovered a message on his LinkedIn account after a warning was issued to MPs and parliamentary staff by MI5 yesterday.

The alert specifically identified two LinkedIn profiles set up with the names Amanda Qiu and Shirly Shen, who were said to be posing as recruitment head-hunters.

Mr Whelband, who is also a Harborough district councillor, discovered a three-month-old message from Shirly Shen, which included a potential job offer.

The message sent to Simon Whelband

He didn’t reply to the message, which was written in poor English, and reported the matter.

Mr Whelband spoke to HFM:

China’s foreign ministry has said the allegations are “unfounded” and it does not have “any interest” in the internal affairs of other countries.