by The United States shared “gobsmacking” evidence with Britain at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic that suggested a “high probability” that the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory, the Telegraph can reveal.
The Five Eyes intelligence sharing nation was convened in January 2021 to discuss the possibility of a “laboratory leak”, with the United States warning that China had covered up research on coronaviruses and military activity at a laboratory in Wuhan.
In a previously unreported phone call in January 2021, Mike Pompeo, the former US secretary of state, presented evidence supporting the lab leak theory to his colleagues, then-Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, and representatives of Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Speaking to the Telegraph, two Trump administration officials accused Mr Raab and the UK government of ignoring the lab leak theory because of resistance from government scientists who supported the explanation that the virus jumped between animals and humans.
Mr. Pompeo presented a summary of classified American intelligence reports collected in the early days of the pandemic and compiled by the State Department. The intelligence reports themselves are understood to have been shared with the UK via the Five Eyes network between October and December 2020.
“We saw some pieces of information and thought they were, ironically, gobs of fun,” said one former official who worked on the intelligence that informed Mr. Pompeo’s report. “Obviously they indicated that there was a high probability that this was a lab leak.”
In one document, since released by the State Department under Freedom of Information laws, US officials warned of “consistent stonewalling” from China after the virus was first detected and blamed local officials “gross corruption and inconvenience”.
The research revealed for the first time that Chinese military officials worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in the years before the pandemic, and that several researchers at the laboratory were ill shortly before the virus was first recorded nearby.
It also revealed that Chinese scientists had conducted “gain of function” research at the WIV, which became a key piece of evidence for the lab leak theory being pushed by its supporters.
The theory has become a divisive topic among scientists and government officials in the years since the pandemic prompted two investigations by the World Health Organization, which China has been accused of obstructing.
British government ministers, including Boris Johnson, rejected the possibility that Covid-19 had been invented by scientists, arguing in June 2021 that “our advice is that it does not look as if this particular disease came of zoonotic origin. from a laboratory”.
Two former officials claimed the UK ignored the evidence presented by the US because ministers saw the lab leak claims as a “radioactive American political issue” that fueled a public disagreement between government scientists and Mr Trump.
“When it was fundamentally political, the ability to pursue it internationally really diminished because no one else was interested in contacting it,” said one of the officials.
“I think [Five Eyes] The way the issue has been treated in US politics has been very disturbing.”
Both separately named Jeremy Farrar, a member of the government’s Emergency Scientific Advisory Group as one of the main opponents of the lab leak theory within the British government.
The majority of scientific experts have long stated that they believe animal-to-human interaction was the most likely cause of the first infection.
However, some government figures, including Michael Gove, have since said they believe the virus was a “manufactured” virus.
Mr Gove told the Covid Inquiry in November that there was “a significant body of judgment that believes the virus itself was man-made – and that creates its own set of challenges”.
The FBI and the US Department of Energy have said they believe a laboratory leak is the most likely cause of Covid-19, while other agencies have said they think it occurred naturally.
Joe Biden, the US president, has said he does not know where the virus started, and the US National Intelligence Council said last year that it “probably evolved and infected people through initial exposure on a small scale”.
UK ministers are now facing calls to extend the terms of the Covid Inquiry to include an investigation into the origin of the virus.
The Telegraph understands that the call in January 2021 was deliberately held on an “open line” without security encryption in the hope that Chinese intelligence agencies would hear that Western countries were aware of military activity in Wuhan.
“We did that on purpose… we wanted to put pressure on the bad guys,” said a State Department source.
Ten days after the call, in which officials said the UK was unwilling to help a US-led lab leak investigation or share its own research, the summary compiled by Mr Pompeo’s officials was released to the public in a “fact sheet “.
Those involved in the release said they were careful not to reveal the sources or methods of US spy agencies, and that it was only the “tip of the iceberg” of the underlying intelligence gathered.
A UK government spokesman said: “There are still questions to be answered about the origin and spread of Covid-19, particularly so we can ensure we are better prepared for future pandemics.
“The UK continues to support the World Health Organization in its expert study into the origins of Covid-19. It is important that China and other countries fully cooperate with the researchers.”
