The relationship between Chinese networking giant Huawei and UK based telecommunications giant BT is to be investigated by a UK parliamentary committee.

The investigation comes after a US report which concluded that the Chinese company posed a threat to national security.

BT receives much of its networking equipment from Huawei including material involved in the rollout of superfast broadband within the UK.

The chairman of the investigation, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, said in a interview with the Guardian: “We wanted to look at the historical background to that contract, to what extent there were security concerns at the time, whether and to what extent the British government were involved in these decisions, and whether there have been any causes for concern that have arisen since Huawei became involved in our telecoms infrastructure.”