Keir Starmer’s team issued burner phones and lead-lined bags for China visit

Keir Starmer’s team has been issued with burner phones, fresh SIM cards and temporary email addresses for a visit to China, the Guardian reports. The measures are intended to prevent devices being loaded with spyware or UK government servers being hacked into. The paper says such tactics are par for the course in an age of digital espionage and that No 10 has routinely used burner phones on some overseas trips, citing the G20 summits in Brazil in 2024 and South Africa in 2025.

It adds that these precautions are not used on visits to allied nations or Five Eyes partners and that they have been standard for visits to China for at least a decade. Officials have long warned about hotel surveillance and concealed bugging devices. The Guardian quotes a former senior British intelligence official saying “there was a well-worn routine in places like Shenzhen that foreigners from the west would be assigned the same rooms so they wouldn’t have to move the equipment,” and recalls a 2008 incident when an aide to Gordon Brown reported a missing BlackBerry after a liaison; the aide was reprimanded and No 10 said there had been no security compromise.

keir starmer, burner phones china visit, fresh sim cards, temporary email addresses, spyware prevention measures, uk government servers, no 10 burner phones, g20 brazil 2024, g20 south africa 2025, five eyes partners, hotel surveillance concerns, concealed bugging devices, shenzhen room assignments, gordon brown blackberry, honey trap incident, theresa may beijing 2018, spy cameras warning, lead-lined bag, british embassy secure compartment, james cleverly chinese consulate, vince cable china, personal protection officer, digital espionage tactics, xi jinping, peng liyuan