The British government is facing accusations of sabotaging the prosecution of two alleged spies for China for fear of angering the communist regime in Beijing.
Last month charges were dropped against former Tory party parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash, and teacher Christopher Berry for allegedly passing on intelligence to the Chinese. Both men have denied the charges.
On Tuesday, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, claimed that there was sufficient grounds to charge the pair in 2024, but claimed that a precedent setting case in the interim involving Bulgarian nationals spying on behalf of Russia found that the country in question must have represented “a threat to the national security of the UK” at the time of the offence.
Parkinson said per the BBC that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) sought to obtain testimony from Sir Kier Starmer’s government to confirm that the communist country did indeed represent a threat to Britain. However, the prime minister said that this could not be done because the official position of the previous Conservative government did not publicly classify China as a national security threat.
“Efforts to obtain that evidence were made over many months, but notwithstanding the fact that further witness statements were provided, none of these stated that at the time of the offence China represented a threat to national security,” Parkinson said.
However, according to The Telegraph, the case could have potentially passed the “evidential threshold” against the two men if the government would have presented proof that China was at least a “potential enemy” at the time of the alleged offences.
Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, who used Cash as a parliamentary researcher, noted that then head of Britain’s MI5 security service publicly stated in 2022 alongside then FBI director Christopher Ray that China represented the most significant threat to national security.
“The head of MI5 had literally given a speech about China being the biggest threat and highest caseload for intelligence officers. If MI5 is willing to say that, why not security officials?” Kearns questioned.
Executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, Luke de Pulford, added: “All they needed was the government to say China was a national security threat. It’s incomprehensible that they were unable to provide evidence for something so utterly obvious that even the head of the Secret Intelligence Service has been screaming it from the rooftops.”
Reports have emerged that members of Starmer’s government were concerned that a high-profile espionage case involving China could threaten the relationship between Beijing and Britain.
Shortly before the case collapsed, high-ranking officials held meetings to discuss the government’s position on the matter. According to the Sunday Times, these were led by Prime Minister Starmer’s top national security advisor Jonathan Powell, who reportedly made a secret trip to China months prior. Sir Oliver Robbins, permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, is said to have been one of the vocal critics of charging the men over concerns about a diplomatic fallout.
The meeting reportedly culminated in the government deciding that its witness would only refer to the National Security Strategy 2025, which described China as a “geostrategic challenge” with “the potential to have a significant effect on the lives of British people”. A far-cry from naming China as a national security threat.
A Downing Street spokesman denied any role in the quashing of the case and said that it was “disappointed” that the Crown Prosecution Service did not pursue a trial.
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