At an emergency board meeting on Tuesday a move is planned to put four representatives of a China state-backed organisation onto Imagination’s board.

It is feared that this could be a possible preliminary to re-domiciling Imagination in China.

Four senior MPs – the chairs of four Commons select committees – business, energy and industrial strategy; digital, culture, media and sport; defence and foreign affairs- have written to the Prime Minister asking him to intervene on the grounds of national security.

One of the four MPs, Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, says: “The UK’s strategic assets are today in tech and we’re seeing them harvested abroad. We need to act if we want to stop sales that diminish our ability to innovate at home and compete globally.”

Imagination was bought for £550 million in 2017 by Canyon Bridge – a China-backed private equity company.

At Imagination’s emergency board meeting on Tuesday there will be a move to  appoint to the Imagination board four representatives of China Reform Holdings which is the biggest investor in Canyon Bridge.

China Reform Holdings is controlled by the Chinese government.

It is reported that an Imagination executive has heard from China Reform Holdings that it wants to move the domicile of Imagination from the UK to China.

Imagination employs 650 people in the UK and 900 worldwide and a move to China could affect these jobs.

When Softbank bought Arm it made its move just after Theresa May became prime minister. It is thought that the timing of this move on Imagination could also be timed to take advantage of a moment of distraction for the UK government.