The government did not apply any pressure to drop a China spy trial last month and is “incredibly disappointed”, a minister has told Sky News.
Emma Hardy said “it wasn’t what we wanted” after the case against teacher Christopher Berry, 33, and former parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash, 30 – accused of spying for China – was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on 15 September.
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Berry, of Witney, Oxfordshire, and Cash, from Whitechapel, east London, had denied accusations of providing information prejudicial to the interests of the state in breach of the Official Secrets Act between December 2021 and February 2023.
On Tuesday, Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions (DPP), told MPs in a letter the CPS had tried “over many months” to get the evidence it needed to carry out the prosecution, but it had not been forthcoming from the Labour government.
He said the government refused to brand China a threat, despite being repeatedly asked.
To prove the case under the Official Secrets Act of 1911, prosecutors would have to show the defendants were acting for an “enemy”.
Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions (DPP), issues a statement, 7 August 2024. Pic: PA
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Former chair of the powerful foreign affairs committee, Alicia Kearns, who Mr Cash worked for when he was arrested, accused Labour of crippling prosecutors to appease Beijing for a trade deal.
However, Ms Hardy said the case was dropped due to a change in case law following a High Court case earlier this year, which meant the evidence threshold “wasn’t met”.
She said the China spy case had to be based on the evidence from 2023, when they were charged, and when the previous Conservative government was in power.
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Emma Hardy said the government did not apply pressure to drop the case
No pressure from government
Asked if there was any pressure from the government to drop the case over fears of calling China an enemy, the minister said: “No, absolutely not.
“I’m pleased to be able to come on here and put that straight because I’ve seen that flying around social media.
“So no, absolutely not. It is simply because, and as I say, the letter from the director of public prosecution shows that there was a court case in the High Court that meant that the evidence bar changed and that meant that it didn’t meet it.”
She added: “We as a government are incredibly disappointed that it has been dropped, that wasn’t the outcome that we wanted.”
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On Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer insisted the decision to brand China a threat would have to have been taken under the last Conservative administration as that is the period of time the case refers to.
It is understood the decision to end the case came after a meeting of senior officials, which, according to The Sunday Times, included Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, and Sir Oliver Robins, the Foreign Office’s top diplomat.
The case was allegedly dropped following a meeting involving National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, pictured, and Sir Oliver Robbins, the Foreign Office’s top diplomat
No involvement from national security adviser
Ms Hardy denied Mr Powell was involved in the decision to drop the case.
“Absolutely not, nothing to do with him, nothing to do with ministers whatsover,” she said.
“That is completely false.”
The minister said she would not call China an “enemy” but added: “China is a challenge and China is a country which we have a large trading relationship with.
“And sometimes we’ll be competing with China, sometimes we’ll be collaborating with China. And sometimes we need to challenge China when it makes decisions that we don’t think are in our interest.”
The High Court case Ms Hardy said resulted in the evidence threshold for spying being raised involved six Bulgarians sentenced in May to lengthy prison sentences for spying for Russia in the UK and across Europe.
