By Andrew MacAskill

LONDON, (Reuters) – The House of Commons speaker has received a report from MI5 claiming that the Chinese Communist Party was using a woman to exercise improper influence on lawmakers.

Representative Lindsay (NYSE.) Hoyle claimed in an email that MI5 had discovered that Lindsay “has been engaging in political interference activities in behalf of the Chinese Communist Party… Engaging with members here in parliament.”

According to the email, she had “facilitated financial donations on behalf foreign nationals based Hong Kong or China to serve and aspiring parliamentarians”, it said.

Hoyle stated that Hoyle had told Hoyle the woman was involved with the no longer functioning all-party parlamentar group, Chinese in Britain.

Britain’s interior minister Priti Patel said it was “deeply concerning” that an individual working on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party had targeted lawmakers. Priti Patel said that the identification of this individual was possible because of “strong structures” in the United Kingdom to recognize foreign interference.

London’s Chinese Embassy did not respond immediately to our request for comment.

Iain Duncan Smith was a British ex-leader of the governing Conservative Party. China sanctioned him for highlighting alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

He asked why the woman was not deported, and called for tighter accreditation for those gaining access into parliament.

Tobias Ellwood, former defence minister, stated to parliament that “this is the kind of grey-zone interference which we now anticipate from China.”

The recent decline in relations between Britain and China has been due to issues such as Hong Kong, Xinjiang and others.

MI5 asked British citizens last year to be vigilant about the threats of spying by Russia, China, and Iran.

British intelligence reveals that Russia and China have tried to steal intellectual property and commercially sensitive data. They also sought to influence domestic politics and spread misinformation.

China’s ambassador to Britain was prohibited from attending an event held in British Parliament last year, as Beijing imposed sanctions against lawmakers who highlighted Xinjiang’s human right violations.

China placed nine sanctions on British politicians last March for spreading lies and disinformation about Uighur Muslims treated in China’s far west.