China spy case decision taken ‘purely’ by CPS – minister

The decision on whether to take the China spy case to trial was taken “purely” by the Crown Prosecution Service, a minister said as he fielded questions from MPs.

Statements provided by deputy national security adviser Matt Collins as part of the CPS’s case showed the Government’s evidence warned of Beijing’s large-scale espionage but stressed the desire to seek a positive relationship with the economic superpower, prompting fresh questions about why the case collapsed.

Chris Ward, in his first outing as a Cabinet Office minister in the Commons, said the evidence in three statements published on Wednesday night “sets out the threats China poses multiple times”.

He also rejected accusations of political interference by Sir Keir Starmer’s Government as “completely untrue” and that the Government is “profoundly disappointed” the prosecution did not go ahead.

And he said Mr Collins’ decision had decided of his own accord to include the current Government’s position in his most recent statement.

Mr Ward told the Commons: “It’s clear from this evidence, which all can now see, that the DNSA (deputy national security adviser Matt Collins) took significant strides to articulate the threat from China in support of the prosecution.

“The decision to proceed, as the Prime Minister (Sir Keir Starmer) made it clear yesterday, was taken purely by the CPS.

“It is also clear that three segments are constrained by the position of the Conservative government on China at the time of the alleged offences.”

Responding to Conservative shadow minister Neil O’Brien, Mr Ward said he found the Tories’ position “confusing”.

“On Monday they accused the Government of political inference, including from the national security adviser.

“The Prime Minister has made clear this is completely untrue.

“On the other hand they’re also saying there should have been more, there should have been political interference, and the Prime Minister should have directed or tried to help the CPS,” he said.

“The Prime Minister made it very very clear that that is not the case, and the Prime Minister will not, and no Government would interfere with the CPS, it’s entirely their decision to charge.”

A parliamentary committee will launch a formal inquiry into what has happened.

Labour MP Matt Western, chairman of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, said there are “a lot of questions yet to be asked” as he announced the move.

The CPS dropped the case after deeming the evidence did not show China was a threat to national security.

But in the statements, Mr Collins called China “the biggest state-based threat to the UK’s economic security”.

He said Beijing’s “highly capable” intelligence services are carrying out “large-scale espionage operations against the UK to advance the Chinese state’s interests and harm the interests and security of the UK”.

The Chinese activities “threaten the UK’s economic prosperity and resilience and the integrity of our democratic institutions”, he said.

But in the last paragraph of his third and final statement in August, just weeks before the case collapsed, he set out the Government’s approach to China.

He said it was “important for me to emphasise” that the Government “is committed to pursuing a positive relationship with China to strengthen understanding, co-operation and stability”.

The current Government’s “Three C’s” approach is based on co-operation where there are of shared interests, competition in other areas and challenge on issues including national security.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch questioned why Mr Collins’s final statement set out Labour’s approach to China.

She said: “Yesterday the Prime Minister insisted that the deputy national security adviser’s witness statements reflected the last Conservative government’s policy towards China.

“Now we discover that a witness statement sent under this Labour Government included language describing the current Government’s policy towards China, which was directly lifted from the Labour Party manifesto.

“Did an official, adviser or minister suggest that this should be included?”

Mr Ward told MPs that wording in deputy national security adviser (DNSA) Matt Collins’s statement which reflects the Labour Party manifesto was “put in there to provide wider context of the situation we’re in”, Mr Ward told MPs.

He later said it was Mr Collins’ decision to “taken freely” to include the current Government’s position in his most recent statement.

Asked why the deputy national security adviser included reference to the economic opportunity of relations with China, he said: “To provide broader context of the position of the government at the time in relation to the position on China … it is an independent decision taken freely without interference from ministers or advisers for the DNSA to do that.”

The case against Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry was dropped by the CPS in September.

Both men, who deny wrongdoing, had been accused of passing secrets to China.

Government minister Stephen Kinnock told Times Radio the Conservatives were making “unsubstantiated allegations” about “political pressure” being used to influence the decision to drop the prosecution.

He said Mr Collins was “reflecting the wider context of the relationship”, adding: “It is, of course, a matter for the CPS to determine whether or not the bar for prosecution, the evidentiary basis, has been met.

“But the wider job of the deputy national security adviser is to provide the wider context of our economic, diplomatic and national security relationship with China.”

He declined to say whether he believed director of public prosecutions (DPP) Stephen Parkinson was the right man for the job.

Mr Kinnock told Sky News: “I believe the DPP told MPs yesterday that he felt the evidence was 95% of the way there, but there was a 5% gap that was missing.

“I think he’s the best person to explain what that 5% was missing was.

He said the Government is “deeply disappointed” that the prosecution did not go ahead and that it is “quite appalling” now that Mrs Badenoch is “playing politics” with our national security and “throwing around unsubstantiated allegations about this Labour government deliberately collapsing the trial”.

DPP Mr Parkinson said in a letter last week that the evidence needed to show that China represented a threat to national security when the alleged offences took place.

There was an “ongoing obligation” to independently assess the evidence of a case, he said, stressing that while he stood by the decision to bring charges in April 2024, a High Court decision weeks later meant the threshold for the evidence had changed.

He said he had made efforts to obtain further evidence over many months but that “none of these stated that at the time of the offence, China represented a threat to national security”.

Former researcher Mr Cash said he is “completely innocent” and has been “placed in an impossible position” because he has not been able to prove it in a public trial.

“I wish to reiterate that I am completely innocent.

“Not just because the case against me was dropped, but because at no point did I ever intentionally assist Chinese intelligence,” he said on Wednesday night.

He added: “I have been placed in an impossible position.

“I have not had the daylight of a public trial to show my innocence, and I should not have to take part in a trial by media.”

Meanwhile, friends of Mr Collins said he did not understand why his evidence was insufficient for the case to proceed, The Spectator reported.

The magazine also cited several sources from the last government saying that two serious cases of foreign spying involving Russia and China were suppressed, reportedly involving hacking of the Ministry of Defence and Downing Street.