Tory MP says collapsed China spy case ‘sends a really dangerous message’

Tory MP Alicia Kearns says the collapsed case against two men accused of spying for Beijing “sends a really dangerous message that we will not defend our own democracy”.

One of the men accused, 30-year-old Christopher Cash, worked as a parliamentary researcher and was director of the China Research Group (CRG), with close links to then-senior Tories including Ms Kearns, who served as chairwoman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr Cash and 33-year-old Christopher Berry, a teacher, were charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in April last year with spying under the Official Secrets Act 1911, when they were accused of collecting and communicating information which could be “useful to an enemy”.

Both denied the charges.

The Prime Minister has maintained the last Conservative administration had not designated China as a threat to national security, so his Government could not provide evidence to that effect, which the director of public prosecutions (DPP) Stephen Parkinson said was required to meet the threshold for prosecution.

Mr Parkinson said the CPS had tried “over many months” to gather material from ministers, but it had not been forthcoming. The case collapsed in September.

Speaking to the Daily Mail about the dropped charges, Ms Kearns said: “‘All I was told was it’s come from the top.

“I think they cut the legs from under the CPS for some kind of grubby deal at the Treasury and No 10.

“It sends a really dangerous message that we will not defend our own democracy, we won’t defend our own people and the nation itself.

“It is inconceivable that the case could have collapsed without ministerial or executive involvement in some way. There are serious questions about constitutional propriety.”

Ms Kearns, the Conservative MP for Rutland and Stamford, added that she fears that Chinese dissidents could have been put in danger, while she also has concerns over a trip she took to Taiwan in 2022.

Describing a conversation she had with officers while being interviewed about the case, she added: “An officer asked ‘Can I just check that you went to Taiwan, and is this the name of the hotel you stayed at? Can you tell us why it would be of interest to somebody to know that you were in Taiwan in that hotel?’

“They could have got in that room at any time. When I stay in a hotel, I always double check if it is a two-way mirror, I always try to do a rough check for anything I’m worried about.

“But unless you have been specifically trained to do it, you can’t be sure that the room hasn’t got a bug or a camera somewhere. There could be photos of you walking around your hotel room naked.

“On trips like Taiwan, you assume that you’re being listened to in meetings. But in a hotel room it’s not like you get changed under the covers. I worry what information they have about me or particularly my family – I would have rung my family in that room.

“He (Mr Cash) had lots of meetings with people who were dissidents who had to flee China, Uighurs, Hong Kongers. That obviously is now concerning for them.”