Grant Shapps insists he won’t give up posting on TikTok despite calls for new Defence Secretary to quit Chinese-owned social media app over security fears
- New Defence Secretary is facing scrutiny over his use of the video-sharing site
Grant Shapps has vowed to continue posting on TikTok despite calls for the new Defence Secretary to quit the Chinese-owned social media app over security fears.
The Cabinet minister, who took over at the Ministry of Defence last week, has faced scrutiny over his use of the video-sharing site since taking up his new role.
Mr Shapps is one of the most prolific users of TikTok in Westminster and has amassed nearly 15,000 followers on the app.
TikTok was banned on Government phones issued to ministers and Whitehall officials earlier this year following a security review prompted by spying fears.
It is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, but has denied it is controlled by the government in Beijing.
Mr Shapps does not have TikTok on his personal phone and his account is managed by his staff.
But he has rebuffed MPs’ calls for him to quit the app completely after being appointed Defence Secretary.
Grant Shapps has vowed to continue posting on TikTok despite calls for the new Defence Secretary to quit the Chinese-owned social media app over security fears
Senior Tory backbenchers have been urging Mr Shapps – who last month posted videos to TikTok from a ministerial visit to Ukraine – to stop using the app
TikTok was banned on Government phones issued to ministers and Whitehall officials earlier this year following a security review prompted by spying fears
Asked if he would give up posting to the social media network, Mr Shapps told GB News today: ‘No, I don’t have it on my phone and, by the way, the Ministry of Defence uses TikTok as does the Army.
‘You can’t help but be where people are actually viewing things, but I don’t personally have it on my phone.
He added: ‘Just to be clear, there’s no security risk viewing TikTok. I don’t think anyone is saying that – the security risk will come through the app itself and I don’t have the app on my phone. I don’t personally post to it.
‘We have to make a decision in the wider world…I don’t think it’s the best way to communicate, not being on the platforms that people use.
‘They have to be used safely. Presumably the MoD before my time here came to the conclusion that it was able to do that and I follow the security lead of the Ministry of Defence.’
Senior Tory backbenchers have been urging Mr Shapps – who last month posted videos to TikTok from a ministerial visit to Ukraine – to stop using the app.
Ex-Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who has been sanctioned by the Chinese government, said: ‘I recommend now that he revisits his decision and that he recognises that they pose a threat – otherwise they wouldn’t have been banned from Government phones.
‘So in his situation, he should come off it, frankly.’
Tim Loughton, another Tory backbencher who has been sanctioned by China, said: ‘You can not de-link personal and ministerial TikTok accounts when you are in such a high-profile Government position. It is not sustainable.’
Mark Francois, a former armed forces minister, claimed there was ‘little the Chinese intelligence services would like more’ than to have Mr Shapps regularly using TikTok.
Tobias Ellwood, the chair of the House of Commons’ Defence Committee, recently predicted Mr Shapps would come out of his first Ministry of Defence briefing with less apps on his phone.
‘He’ll be getting the mother of all briefings when he walks into the MoD,’ Mr Ellwood said last week.
‘I suspect he might have his phone, not taken away from him, but certainly he’ll come out with less apps on his phone than when he walks in.’
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