Home Secretary denies ministerial interference amid dropped Chinese spy case
Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said she was “very disappointed” about the collapse of a major Chinese spying case but denied there was any ministerial interference.
The case against Christoper Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, was due to start at Woolwich crown count on Monday, but was dropped on 15 September, a move which sparked uproar amongst MPs on both sides of the aisle.
Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, blamed an “evidential failure” for the decision, whilst the CPS declined to give any details, including whether any witnesses in the government had given evidence that would have undermined the categorisation of China as an “enemy”.
Top secret meeting
However, The Sunday Times reported the decision came after Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, convened a top secret meeting of senior Whitehall mandarins to discuss the trial.
This included the potential diplomatic and security consequences of the trial, but also raised the evidence that Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser and key witness, was due to put forward.
According to Whitehall sources, Powell said Collins would draw upon the National Security Strategy 2025, which refers to China as a “geostrategic challenge” whose actions have “the potential to have a significant effect on the lives of British people”.
It does not refer to China as an enemy, but in order to prove the case through the Official Secrets Act, under which the two were charged, prosecutors would have had to show the defendants were acting for an “enemy”.
This meant Collins would be unable to defend the notion that the People’s Republic was an enemy or overtly hostile to UK interests.
Civil servants were later told that Collins also did not draw upon more detailed, and damning, security assessments about China’s activities made available by the Home Office.
A senior government source said the assessments would have it made clear “that China met the definition” of what the Official Secrets Act requires.
No ministerial involvement
Mahmood insisted that there was “no ministerial involvement whatsoever” in the CPS decision and as well as stressing that there was no Whitehall meeting to discuss the case.
In an interview with BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, she said: “I don’t recognise that reporting about a meeting, I’m not aware of any such meeting taking place.
“It was a decision of the Crown Prosecution Service, as they have made clear themselves, an independent decision on whether to proceed with that prosecution.”
“I’m very disappointed that that prosecution has not proceeded.”
“Our understanding is that the evidence that was available to the Crown Prosecution Service when they brought the charges is not materially different to the evidence that they had just before the trial was due to get under way.
“So, I think it’s a question for the prosecution service to answer, but as the Government, the Home Office, we very much wanted to see that trial proceed.”
However, former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith insisted China is an “enemy” and that “many more” Chinese spies are in the UK.
He told Times Radio on Sunday morning: “Many of us are determined now to raise this again in parliament because we think the government has in essence lied to parliament over what actually happened.”
Duncan Smith added: “I think Downing Street is a risk to national security at the moment… I really am embarrassed about this British government. They’re on bended knees to China.”