Barry Gardiner, who received more than £500,000 as part of alleged Chinese “political interference policies”, has refuted that MI5’s public warning referred to him.

Christine Lee reportedly donated more than £500,000 to the Brent North MP to pay for his office researchers over a period of six years. Until the morning of the alert, Ms Lee’s son worked as Mr Gardiner’s diary manager.

Mr Gardiner told the House of Commons he had been assured that the MI5 alert did not relate to those donations.

He said: “The security services told me their alert was based on specific intelligence of illegal funding which did not relate to the donations which paid for my office staff. Those ceased in 2020.”

Mr Gardiner has already claimed he acted in good faith and innocence of any Chinese intention.

This statement follows MI5’s rare “interference alert”, which was sent to MPs and peers last week, explaining that Ms Lee, a prominent London-based solicitor, had been engaging in “political interference activities” on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.

The Labour frontbencher called on Priti Patel to explain what action was being taken to identify where the “tainted” funds had ended up and whether MPs would be given extra support in making required checks about the true source of any donation.

“Is she able to tell the House what steps she is taking to ascertain where the tainted money ended up?”

Ms Patel replied that she was sure Mr Gardiner would continue to cooperate with intelligence and security services.

“It is a fact that across this House we will absolutely come together to do everything possible in terms of protecting the integrity of our democracy and all honourable members from such malign interference and threats,” she said.

She added she looked forward to working with the Speaker to “close down some of these permissive loopholes that have clearly been exposed”.

Ms Patel also said that the threat of such interference techniques by foreign powers was “growing and diversifying”.

She added that ministers were working with police and the Crown Prosecution Service to give them additional powers to tackle such activities which were not currently illegal.