Jack FenwickPolitical correspondent
AFP/Getty Images
Christopher Cash (left) and Christopher Berry (right) were both accused of being Chinese spies
A case involving two men accused of spying for China collapsed because evidence could not be obtained from the government referring to China as a national security threat, the UK’s most senior prosecutor has said.
Charges against Christopher Cash, 30, and Christopher Berry, 33 – who both deny the allegations – were dropped by prosecutors last month prompting criticism from ministers and MPs.
In a rare intervention, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) Stephen Parkinson said the Crown Prosecution Service tried to obtain further evidence from the government “over many months” but witness statements did not meet the threshold to prosecute.
Sir Keir Starmer said the government could only draw on the previous government’s assessment, which dubbed China an “epoch-defining challenge”.
Mr Parkinson said while there was sufficient evidence to prosecute at the time charges were brought in April 2024, a precedent set by another spying case earlier this year had then raised the threshold needed to convict people under the Official Secrets Act.
China would have needed to have been labelled a “threat to national security” at the time of the alleged offences by Mr Cash and Mr Berry, he said.
The government has always maintained it is “frustrated” the trial collapsed and Mr Parkinson’s intervention comes after weeks of speculation about why the prosecution could not continue.
Sir Keir said the government’s description of China could not change retrospectively and had to be based on the position of the last government.
“Now that’s not a political to and fro, that’s a matter of law. You have to prosecute people on the basis of the circumstances at the time of the alleged offence,” the prime minister told reporters.
“So all the focus needs to be on the policy of the Tory government in place then.”
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy said: “We have emphasised from the outset that the allegation about China instructing the relevant British individuals to ‘steal British intelligence’ is entirely fabricated and malicious slander, which we firmly reject.”
“We urge certain individuals in the UK to stop this kind of self-staged anti-China political farce,” they added.
In her speech at Conservative party conference, leader Kemi Badenoch claimed Labour “deliberately collapsed the trial” because “the prime minister wants to suck up to Beijing”.
Mr Berry, a teacher from Witney in Oxfordshire who had worked in China, and Mr Cash, a parliamentary researcher from Whitechapel in London, were arrested in March 2023 as part of an investigation that involved counter-terror police.
They were accused of gathering and providing information prejudicial to the safety and interests of the state between December 2021 and February 2023.
Under the Official Secrets Act, anyone a
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