The husband of former Labor MP Gloria De Piero confirmed his home was searched on Wednesday as part of a police investigation into an alleged Chinese spy ring.
James Robinson, a former aide to former deputy Labor leader Tom Watson, issued a statement confirming the raid on the home he shares with his wife, but said he had not been detained or questioned by police.
He said: “I can confirm that police officers visited my home yesterday with a search warrant. I understand that their attendance was part of investigations into those arrested and questioned over matters allegedly related to China.”
Robinson, founder and director of Woburn Partners and former media correspondent for The Guardian, added: “I would like to make it absolutely clear that I have not been detained, arrested or questioned in relation to this or any other matter.”
De Piero, a former MP for Ashfield, served in the shadow cabinet under Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn. She left the House of Commons in 2019 and is now a senior adviser at her husband’s firm. There is no indication that De Piero has been detained, arrested or questioned by police, and the search is understood to be linked to her husband.
Robinson, the fourth person with links to the Labor Party named in connection with the investigation, worked as Watson’s communications director in the late 2010s, when Watson was the party’s deputy leader.
Counter-terrorism police on Wednesday arrested three people who previously worked for the Labor Party. David Taylor, 39, Matthew Aplin, 43, and Steve Jones, 68, were arrested on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service, in violation of the National Security Law. The three were later released on bail.
Taylor, husband of Labor MP Joani Reid, was special adviser to Labor MP Peter Hain when he was Secretary of State for Wales. Since then he has worked as a lobbyist for a company called Earthcott. Earthcott is listed as a supporter of a Labor business group, SME4Labour.
Reid, MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven, said on Thursday night she would temporarily stand down from the parliamentary Labor Party while the investigation takes place. Taylor has also been suspended from the Labor Party pending an investigation.
A spokesman said: “These are incredibly serious allegations. We cannot comment further while the police investigation is ongoing.”
Aplin previously worked as an adviser to the Labor Party in Wales. Jones was an adviser to former Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones and Hilary Armstrong, the former Labor leader.
Police on Thursday also searched the Cardiff home of a fifth man, Martin Shipton, 72, associate editor of the Nation Cymru website. Shipton said in an article posted on the website that the raid took place at 6:20 a.m. and described it as a “Kafkaesque nightmare where I wasn’t aware of what was going on.” He has not been arrested.
Shipton added that he gave officers a “voluntary statement” about a trip to Hong Kong he attended with Taylor, whom he said he had known for 25 years.
