Starmer to face Commons grilling over China spy case as No 10 at odds with CPS

Sir Keir Starmer will face a Commons grilling over the China spy case, after his UK Government and the Crown Prosecution Service clashed over the release of vital evidence.

The Prime Minister is beset with mounting pressure over his administration’s handling of the collapsed case, after No 10 accused the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of having blocked the publication of a crucial witness statement.

The CPS hit back, and insisted it was entirely up to the Government to release the evidence if it wanted to.

The latest twist in the row is likely to come under scrutiny at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

Trial

Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative Party has been pressing ministers over their handling of the collapsed trial of Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, a teacher.

Both men, who deny wrongdoing, had been accused of passing secrets to China, but charges against them were dropped last month.

Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald is understood to have been prepared to publish a Government witness statement central to the withdrawal of espionage charges against the men.

Sources within the Government had claimed the Cabinet Secretary – the country’s most senior civil servant – had gone to the CPS to discuss the publication of the witness statement by Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser.

It was that statement the CPS deemed did not meet the threshold for proceeding with the trial of the two alleged spies because it did not show China posed a threat to national security at the time the alleged offences occurred.

Prosecutors concluded during their meeting with Civil Service chief Mr Wormald that publishing the evidence outside of a courtroom would be “inappropriate”, senior sources said.

Material

But a CPS spokesperson denied the Government’s claims.

“The statements were provided to us for the purpose of criminal proceedings which are now over,” they said.

The spokesperson added: “The material contained in them is not ours, and it is a matter for the Government, independently of the CPS, to consider whether or not to make that material public.”

Sir Keir has heaped praise on deputy national security adviser Mr Collins, amid accusations he was being thrown under the bus for providing the Government’s evidence in the case.

According to a readout, Sir Keir told his Cabinet on Tuesday Mr Collins is a “highly respected securocrat” who made “every effort” to support the case in court.

However, Mr Collins was constrained by the “policy position of the government at the time of the offence”, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman added.

Sir Keir has denied that the Labour Government was responsible for the decision to drop the charges against Mr Cash and Mr Berry, and blamed the Conservatives’ approach to China in power.

The Prime Minister said the last Tory government “declined to describe China either as an enemy or infer that by describing it as a current threat to national security”.

The Liberal Democrats urged the Government to now publish Mr Collins’ witness statement.

The party’s foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller said: “If ministers have nothing to hide they have nothing to fear.

“Failure to come clean will just confirm people’s suspicions of a cover-up and that ministers are more worried about cosying up to China than protecting our national security.”