In UK’s interest to ‘protect’ collapsed China spying case documents – minister

Sir Keir Starmer’s Government has a “duty” to be transparent and release documents related to the collapse of the alleged Chinese spying trial, the Conservatives have said.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart accused the Government of being “unclear, inconsistent and inaccurate” in relation to the case against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry.

However, Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told MPs it is in the UK’s interest to “protect” the material requested by the Tories.

A Conservative motion to release the documents was rejected by 174 votes to 327, majority 153.

The spying case was withdrawn last month after the Crown Prosecution Service said it did not have the evidence to secure a conviction.

Mr Berry and Mr Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, deny wrongdoing.

Ministers have consistently denied deliberately collapsing the case, with Mr Thomas-Symonds telling the Commons on Tuesday that “allegations of political interference with this case are absolutely baseless”.

Leading the opposition day debate, Mr Burghart demanded the release of minutes of a meeting involving national security adviser Jonathan Powell at which, they say, the prosecution of the two alleged spies was discussed.

He said: “The Government has been unclear, inconsistent and inaccurate, and we are giving the Government an opportunity to clear this up right now.”

Mr Burghart added: “It’s time for the Government to publish all the details so that we can see what really happened here.

“And I know the Government will protest its innocence. I know the Government will claim that it is all the fault of the CPS or the last government or the legislation, just as it has tried to do so for weeks, but such pleas and protests are no good reason for it to refuse to publish the material we are requesting today.”

He later intervened to say: “Members of this House may have been spied on. The Government has a duty to be transparent, it cannot hide behind anything, given that it has previously asked for similar documents. Make them available.”

Mr Thomas-Symonds said: “The allegations of political interference with this case are absolutely baseless. The CPS decision to discontinue the case was… independent of government.”

He added: “Highly classified material, material subject to legal professional privilege, advice to the Prime Minister which successive governments have maintained a position of not releasing to the public. Why? Because it is in our interest to protect this material.

“He knows that. He knows that in his heart of hearts.”

Mr Thomas-Symonds said updating the National Security Act sooner than 2023 would have “made a massive difference”.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson told the Commons he felt “obliged to play the role of marriage counsellor”, and suggested China should join Russia on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme (Firs), so people carrying out work in the UK under Beijing’s instruction would need to register with the Government.

He said: “It is my duty to urge both sides, Government and official Opposition, to concede that they’ve made mistakes and to bring them together in the hope of finding common ground because they truly have more common ground on this than they would like to admit.”

Former attorney general and Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Cox said: “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, sounds like a duck, looks like a duck, it’s almost certainly a duck.

“And the problem in this case is that the Government was never prepared to describe that animal as a duck.”

Sir Geoffrey added that the Government’s witness was prepared to say “‘it has webbed feet, it swims, it quacks, it has a bill, but we’re not prepared to call it a duck'”, and questioned whether this “roadblock” to progressing with a court case was raised in No 10.

He accused Mr Thomas-Symonds of telling a “complete crock of old duck”.

Lord Richard Hermer, the Attorney General, and Darren Jones, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, are due to give evidence to Parliament’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy on Wednesday.