LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s attempt to draw a line under a collapsed China spying case by publishing witness statements has prompted more questions for the legal system and for a leader who is struggling with low popularity ratings.
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service unexpectedly dropped charges last month against two British men, former parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash and academic Christopher Berry, who were accused of spying for Beijing between 2021 and 2023. They had denied passing politically sensitive information to the Chinese state.
The CPS said the case was dropped because it needed evidence showing Britain considered China a threat to national security, but the government had not provided it after months of requests.
STATEMENTS DID NOT UNEQUIVOCALLY LABEL CHINA AN ENEMY
Following accusations that ministers may have interfered in the case to appease China, Starmer’s government released late on Wednesday three witness statements from Britain’s deputy national security adviser.
While the newly published documents detailed Chinese malign activity, they did not unequivocally state that Britain saw China as an enemy power – a phrase Starmer says was necessary for the legal system to pursue the case and one which the former Conservative government in power at the time had not used.
In his first statement, dated December 12, 2023, Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Collins said: “It is my assessment that the suspects’ alleged activities were prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK, and the information and material passed would be directly or indirectly useful to the Chinese state.”
In a second statement, Collins added: “It is important for me to emphasise, however, that the government is committed to pursuing a positive economic relationship with China.”
SEEKING CLOSER TIES IN PURSUIT OF GROWTH
Starmer’s government has been trying to forge closer ties to China in its pursuit of economic growth, employing what it calls a “three Cs approach” – to compete, cooperate and confront.
After the release of the documents, a spokesperson for the opposition Conservatives said there were “many unanswered questions about this scandal – from the role of the national security adviser, to the potential involvement or knowledge of ministers”.
Starmer, whose popularity has sunk to the lowest on record since winning power last year, has said ministers and his national security adviser had played no role in the case, and Collins, a government official, had offered all the evidence he could.
Some analysts said questions still remained for the CPS.
Legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg wrote on the publishing platform Substack: “It is hard to see how specific allegations of espionage could not be a threat to national security. Answers are needed from prosecutors.”
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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