Spy case collapse sparks allegations of UK PM appeasing China

The decision came amid a separate legal dispute involving a Bulgarian group accused of spying for Russia. The issue centred on the interpretation of the word "enemy" under the Official Secrets Act. The Bulgarians' defense lawyers argued that it should apply only to a country that was at war with Britain or likely to be so in the foreseeable future.

The Court of Appeal later ruled that an enemy nation could be one that represented "a current threat to the national security of the UK", such as Russia, adding, "Friendly powers would fall outside this definition," as reported by The New York Times.

This updated legal test presented the prosecutors in the China case with a problem. They would have had to prove that at the time the two men were accused of spying, China was viewed as a threat to Britain's national security. But in the period from December 2021 to February 2023 the government, then led by the Conservative Party, did not classify China as an adversary. The government instead called China a "systemic competitor" in 2021 and an "epoch-defining and systemic challenge" in 2023.

Stephen Parkinson, the Director of Public Prosecutions, explained in a letter to lawmakers on Tuesday that prosecutors had spent "many months" trying to secure government statements to meet the updated legal test.

While witness statements were provided, "none of these stated that, at the time of the offense, China represented a threat to national security, and by late August 2025 it was realized that this evidence would not be forthcoming," Parkinson wrote. "When this became apparent, the case could not proceed," The New York Times reported.

Kearns, the lawmaker for whom Cash worked as a researcher, has accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government of deliberately undermining the prosecution to "appease Beijing."

Starmer, who was formerly Britain's chief prosecutor, said the government was "disappointed" that the case had collapsed but told reporters on Tuesday night that the cause was procedural. "You can't prosecute someone two years later in relation to a designation that wasn't in place at the time," he said.

If the government had provided a statement declaring that China was not a friendly nation, that could have been challenged by the defense in court.

That hasn't satisfied political critics who argue that the government could have provided some kind of witness statement to help the prosecution move forward, and who claim its failure to do so was a convenient way to protect trade ties with Beijing, as per New York Times.

In April 2024, two men -- Christopher Cash, then a parliamentary researcher to Alicia Kearns, a senior Conservative lawmaker, and Christopher Berry, a teacher -- were accused of gathering and providing information "prejudicial to the safety and interests" of Britain to China between December 2021 and February 2023. Both men denied the charges.

The law under which they were charged, the Official Secrets Act, dates from 1911 and criminalizes information gathering that is "useful to an enemy."

The issue that collapsed this case is unlikely to present itself again, because the Official Secrets Act has been repealed by new legislation called the National Security Act.

That law, which came into effect in 2023, applies to conduct for any "foreign power," not only for an "enemy" state.

Jonathan Hall, the British government's adviser on tackling state threats, said that under the new law, espionage prosecutions can be brought "without the UK being at war, or at risk of war, and without even having to show that the foreign power is a persistent threat."

In 2015, the Conservative-led government promised a "golden decade" of Anglo-Chinese relations -- language that no mainstream British politician would use now. But the case encapsulates the central dilemma for Downing Street in dealing with the world's rising superpower: whether Britain can simultaneously protect its economic interests and its national security, New York Times reported.

"We will cooperate where we can, compete where we need to and challenge where we must," the Labour Party wrote in its policy agenda ahead of the 2024 general election, which it won.

The government subsequently sought to improve a relationship that had soured in recent years, in part because of China's crackdown in Hong Kong and allegations of Chinese cyberattacks. Last November, Starmer became the first British prime minister to meet President Xi Jinping in more than six years.

But alarm has grown in the security services, and in his most recent public threat assessment, Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence agency, named China in a section on "state threats." (ANI)