Sir Keir Starmer has promised to publish the government’s witness statements for the China spy trial that was suddenly dropped.
Former parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash, 30, and teacher Christopher Berry, 33, were charged under the Official Secrets Act with passing politically sensitive information to a Chinese intelligence agent between December 2021 and February 2023, which they deny.
Three weeks before their trial was due to begin, the case against them was dropped.
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The prime minister told MPs in the Commons on Wednesday he has decided to publish the case’s witness statements “in full” after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it was up to the government if they did or not.
Sir Keir has been under pressure to publish them after the director of public prosecutions (DPP), head of the CPS, took the unusual step of sending MPs a letter on 7 October saying the government had refused to label Beijing an enemy “over many months” of being asked to provide that evidence.
The prime minister and his ministers have said the Conservatives failed to brand China an enemy and because the period when the pair were accused of spying was when the Tories were in government, they can only rely on the Tories’ position then.
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This week, the government also said the case was dropped because the Conservatives had taken too long to update the Official Secrets Act 1911, which they say demands a state be labelled as an “enemy” for someone to be prosecuted for spying on behalf of that state.
The Tories have pointed the finger at national security adviser Jonathan Powell, who was accused of having a meeting with officials about the potential consequences of the case just before it was dropped.
But security minister Dan Jarvis said this week that it was Mr Powell’s deputy, Matthew Collins – and him alone – who had provided evidence to the CPS on behalf of the government.
Number 10 did not say when Mr Collins’ three pieces of evidence would be published, but said it would be a “short process”.
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Powell did not discuss evidence
Sir Keir said a meeting in September “did not involve the national security adviser discussing the evidence in any way”.
He said the final piece of evidence was submitted before that meeting and called accusations against Mr Powell “a red herring, a completely scurrilous allegation”.
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Stinks of a cover up
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said her government had repeatedly labelled China a threat.
“This all stinks of a cover up,” she said as she called for the meeting minutes and Mr Powell’s correspondence with the CPS to be published.
She added: “He’s blaming his civil servants. He’s blaming the media. He’s blaming the last government.
“He cannot explain why he could not see this case through.”
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No concept of enemy declaration
Legal experts have said there is nothing in the Official Secrets Act that recognises the concept of a declared enemy.
Mark Elliott, professor of public law at the University of Cambridge, told Sky News: “There’s no official status where countries are an enemy or not.
“The prosecution has to prove to the jury they were trying to pass information to an enemy, the court can form its own view.
“There is also nothing to stop the current government from saying a state was an enemy two years ago.”
