Brexit boss Nigel Farage has warned that the scandal over the dropping of charges against suspected spies for Communist China could fundamentally undermine the intelligence relationship between Britain and the United States.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government has faced accusations that it purposefully hindered the prosecution of parliamentary researcher Chris Cash and academic Christopher Berry for allegedly spying on behalf of China over concern that such a trial may damage the diplomatic relationship between Beijing and Britain.
While Starmer’s government has denied that political motivations were behind its decision to refuse to provide testimony that China represented a national security threat at the time of the arrests in 2024, the collapse of the case last month has raised major concerns in Washington over its deep intelligence sharing with London.
Reform UK leader and longtime ally of President Donald Trump, Nigel Farage said on Sunday evening: “America has been concerned about our weakness on China ever since the Huawei fiasco in 2020.
“After hearing of the spy scandal, a Senior Republican said to me ‘we don’t want the five eyes to become six’. This is very serious.”
London’s Sunday Times also reported concerns in Washington, with an unnamed senior Trump administration official being quoted as saying: “The United States has been warning allies about the Chinese threat to our combined national security since President Trump first came into office in 2017.
“The U.S. government exercises extreme caution in sharing information with foreign governments subject to adversarial coercion and influence. We are especially careful in jurisdictions where our adversaries can act with impunity.”
Congressional Republicans have urged for the case to be reopened, including China Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI), who chairs the House of Representatives’ China committee, said: “As a target of [Chinese Communist Party] espionage, it is my hope that the UK government will not allow this case to falter and will take the steps necessary to ensure a clear message is sent and proper justice is served.”
Meanwhile, another potential rift between Britain and the United States may erupt over Beijing’s plans to build a so-called “super embassy” on a five acre plot opposite the Tower of London at the site of the former Royal Mint.
Although the U.S. has reportedly urged its counterparts in Britain to shut down the project over “deep concerns” that the potential Chinese mega structure could allow Beijing to surveil communications between Washington and London.
However, despite such warnings, a British government source was quoted over the weekend by The Times as claiming that China was recently “given assurances” that the project to build the super embassy would progress under the Labour government. Another said that the Foreign Office was particularly “keen from a diplomatic point of view” to see the project approved.
However, it is unclear as to what if any assurances the government could actually give Beijing, as the final decision will be made by a “quasi-judicial planning process”, according to The Times.
Speaking to the paper, executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, Luke de Pulford said: “Any assurances given to Beijing over their embassy application would be unlawful. If the government greenlights the mega-embassy, they should expect to face a potentially catastrophic judicial review from local residents.”
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