Britain's MI5 security service has warned lawmakers about attempts by Chinese agents to collect information and influence activity, posing the latest spy threat to the nation's parliament.

The warning comes after prosecutors abandoned the trial of two British men charged with spying on members of parliament for China in September because, they said, the British government had not provided enough evidence to show that China was a threat to its national security.

Lindsay Hoyle, the House of Commons speaker, and his counterpart in the House of Lords circulated a new "espionage alert" issued by the security services to warn them of the threat posed by Chinese spies.

Mr Hoyle said the Chinese Ministry of State Security was "actively reaching out to individuals in our community", and that the

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