Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered Huawei equipment to be purged completely from Britain’s 5G network by 2027, risking the ire of China by signalling that the world’s biggest telecoms equipment maker is no longer welcome in the West.

The seven-year lag will please British telecoms operators such as BT, Vodafone and Three, which had feared they would be forced to spend billions of pounds to rip out Huawei equipment much faster. From the end of the year, it will be illegal for operators to buy any 5G equipment from Huawei, Britain’s digital, culture, media and sport secretary Oliver Dowden told Parliament.

He said the decision would mean a delay to the roll-out of 5G by two to three years, and add costs of up to £2 billion .

The US had long pushed Johnson to reverse a decision he made in January to grant Huawei a limited role in 5G. London has also been dismayed by a crackdown in Hong Kong and the perception China did not tell the whole truth over the coronavirus.

Dowden said the cyber arm of Britain’s GCHQ eavesdropping agency, the National Cyber Security Centre, had told ministers it could no longer guarantee the stable supply of Huawei gear after the US imposed new sanctions on chip technology.