China spying case collapse leads to ‘interference’ accusations
Senior officials have pointed fingers at the Labour government over the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service to drop the espionage case against two men accused of spying for China.
Senior UK government figures told the Financial Times that the government fatally undermined the Chinese spying case in order to protect the UK’s commercial and diplomatic relations with Beijing.
Christopher Cash (30), a former parliamentary researcher and director of the China Research Group, and Christopher Berry (33), a former English teacher in China, were charged last year with breaching section one of the 1911 Official Secrets Act.
The allegations involve obtaining, collecting, recording, publishing or communicating notes, documents or information which might be, or were intended to be, directly or indirectly useful to an enemy.
However, one month before the trial was meant to begin, the case collapsed after the prosecutor, Tom Little KC, told the judge at the Old Bailey, “We simply cannot continue to prosecute this case.”
Both men have always stated their innocence. As the CPS had no evidence against the pair, the judge delivered “not guilty” verdicts for both men, resulting in their acquittal of the charge.
China spying row divides Whitehall
As reported last month, Whitehall was seething with anger following the decision to drop the case.
Former security minister Tom Tugendhat and four other MPs wrote to Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, asking for details on the decision to drop the case, as questions had been raised about the UK government’s role.
Cash and Berry were originally charged under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly collecting and passing on information that could be useful to an enemy.
The 1911 Act, which was replaced by the National Security Act in December 2023, criminalised acts “useful to an enemy”, but the UK government does not classify China as an enemy state.
The case against the men resulted, as the FT reported, in a huge dispute that pitted Sir Keir Starmer’s national security advisers and the Foreign Office against the Home Office.
An official noted that the fight escalated at a meeting in September, which was attended by national security adviser Jonathan Powell, deputy national security adviser Matthew Collins, the Foreign Office’s permanent under-secretary, Olly Robbins, and Home Office officials.
Top secret meeting
The Sunday Times also reported that Powell convened this top-secret meeting of senior Whitehall mandarins to discuss the trial ahead of the case being dropped.
However, another government official told the FT that the CPS had simply reviewed evidence it had already received in 2023 and decided it was not as strong as first thought.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said it was “completely false” to claim there was “pressure” from Downing Street to kill the case.
On Sunday, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, speaking on BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, said she was “very disappointed” about the collapse of the spying case but denied there was any ministerial interference.
Whether Cash and Berry could be recharged under the National Security Act seems in doubt, as double jeopardy may be a thorn in the side of any case. Adam King, a barrister at QEB Hollis Whiteman Chamber, explained to City PM last month that the double jeopardy rule is not absolute, but it is very strict.