‘We’ve been hopeless!’ Iain Duncan Smith slams UK’s China response after latest hack

Iain Duncan is 'certain' China was behind cyber-attack on MoD

Sir Iain Duncan Smith has slammed the UK Government’s China stance after yet another humiliating hack of sensitive data.

Last night, Sky News revealed that China hacked Ministry of Defence records and secured a massive data breach.

While the Government has so far refused to name the culprits of the cyber attack, it is understood that, once again, China was responsible.

The attack came on a payroll system filled with information about current and past service personnel, including names and bank details.

While China’s foreign ministry said it “firmly opposes and fights all forms of cyber attacks" and "rejects the use of this issue politically to smear other countries”, Sir Iain Duncan Smith reacted with fury this morning.

IDS blasted the Government's response as 'hopeless' (Image: Sky News)

The former Tory leader, who is at the vanguard of warning about the threat from China, accused Britain’s response of being “hopeless”.

He told Sky News: “Bear in mind the reason, for the Government, they are massively dependent on China - there is hardly a car manufactured in Europe, they’re all manufactured in China…”

“All this is part of that utter dependency on China, and China knows that and that’s where it throws its weight around.

“America has begun to wake up to this and is being much tougher.

“We’ve been pretty hopeless, really! Just look at what happened nearly two years ago - the Electoral Commission with all the names and details was hacked, and nothing was said about it at the time in terms of how bad that was and who did it until four weeks ago, nearly two years later!

The MoD was hacked, but the Government refuses to name the culprit (Image: Getty)

“Then at the same time they hacked, we were told a ‘handful of MPs’, in fact that’s not correct and they hacked between 30 and 40 MPs… we know that for a fact now, America new it and told the UK what had happened and we still didn’t say anything about this until 4/5 weeks ago.

“So China is behind this, and the reluctance, I think, comes from this panic that somehow if we upset China, China will kill the business.

“That’s not going to happen! China is itself desperate at the moment for trade, so they will blow hard at us but we’ve got to recognise that if we don’t stand up for the defence of our freedoms, our human rights, our right to speak out if we wish it then we will be worth nothing in the free world.

He ominously concluded: “China is winning in this war and we’re not even prepared to accept it is a war!”

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps is set to make a statement to the Commons today, in which he will set out a “multi-point plan" of action to protect those affected by the MoD hack.

This morning, Work and Pensions Minister Mel Stride said China is an “epoch-defining challenge” and promised that the UK’s “eyes are wide open”.

He warned that the UK needs to “get the balance right” when it comes to Beijing.