Britain’s sovereignty is at risk if the country allows Chinese tech giant Huawei to help build its 5G infrastructure, the US Secretary of State has warned.

Mike Pompeo described the decision facing the National Security Council as “momentous” in a last-ditch plea to ministers who are expected to make the call on Tuesday.

The Financial Times reported the meeting is expected to agree the company can play a restricted role, with ministers looking to impose a cap on its market share to prevent over-reliance on its equipment.

The US administration has previously warned allies not to allow Huawei to form part of their 5G networks, claiming it would be a security risk, something the company vehemently denies.

But Mr Pompeo wrote on Twitter on Sunday night: “The UK has a momentous decision ahead on 5G.

“British MP Tom Tugendhat gets it right: ‘The truth is that only nations able to protect their data will be sovereign’.

He retweeted a comment by Mr Tugendhat, the chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee in the last parliament, in which the MP said: “Sovereignty means control of data as much as land.

“We need to decide what we’re willing to invest in and who were willing to share our tech with.

“The real costs will come later if we get this wrong and allow Huawei to run 5G.”

Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said the calculation would be taken in terms of the UK’s national interest.

“The decision we make will be based upon our own sovereign right to choose. It’s Britain that will have to live with the consequences of that,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour following Mr Pompeo’s intervention.

“There are risks but we will make an informed decision based on the evidence and we will do so in an autonomous way.”

And the UK’s former national security adviser Peter Ricketts, a crossbench peer, said the risk is being blown out of proportion.

“I’m quite sure, knowing the intelligence community well, that they won’t be recommending to ministers, the course of action that is likely to mess up our intelligence relationship with the US or prejudice UK security.

“I personally think we can find a solution which does allow them to have some role and which doesn’t send the Americans off the other side of the diving board.”

Mr Pompeo is due to meet Boris Johnson and the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on a visit to London this week.

Home Secretary Priti Patel dismissed reports on Sunday that she is “on the warpath” following claims Mr Johnson has been “bounced” by officials into letting Huawei build non-core parts of the 5G network.

She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday the report in the Sunday Times was “not accurate”, adding: “My role is very much to protect the national security of our country and that also includes intelligence services and communications as well.

“We are having discussions, and rightly so, and those discussions remain at the National Security Council level and within-Cabinet level.

“And of course we will have those discussions. We’ll have them privately and I’m not going to comment on speculation in newspapers.”

She said the UK’s co-operation with the Five Eyes network – an alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States – would “absolutely continue”.

On Friday the Prime Minister discussed the security of telecommunications networks in a phone call with Donald Trump, according to the White House.

“The two leaders discussed important regional and bilateral issues, including working together to ensure the security of our telecommunications networks,” a White House statement said.

Last year, the US imposed trade restrictions on Huawei over concerns about the company’s security and ties to the Chinese government.

Allegations that their telecommunications equipment could be used to spy on people has been repeatedly denied by the tech giant.

Mr Tugendhat on Friday warned that Huawei has “consistently demonstrated” it operates under a different attitude to “rule of law and civil rights” overseas.

He called for a “cap” that reduces the rule of Huawei technology in the UK’s communications networks.

“It’s no good taking back control from Brussels only to hand it over to Beijing. And I’m sure that’s not what the Government would want to do,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“This isn’t about the Americans it’s simply about us. And, though I’m pleased to have the support of the US secretary of state, I would rather have the support of our secretary of state for culture, media and sport (Baroness Morgan) here to make a decision that I think is fundamentally in the British national interest.”