The UK Labour government is facing intense pressure from opposition parties to publish evidence from a collapsed spy case involving two men accused of spying for China, following the Crown Prosecution Service’s clarification that it would not block the release of the material. This demand has ignited a political firestorm, with accusations of a cover-up and questions about the government’s stance on national security.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are jointly calling for the immediate publication of witness statements submitted by Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Collins in the case against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has explicitly stated that the evidence is not theirs to control and that the government can decide independently to make it public, contradicting earlier claims from ministers that the CPS had deemed such action inappropriate.
The case unexpectedly collapsed last month, just weeks before the trial was set to begin, after prosecutors concluded they could not obtain evidence from the government confirming that China was regarded as a “current threat to national security” during the alleged offences between December 2021 and February 2023. Both Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Berry, a researcher based in China, were charged under the Official Secrets Act and deny the spying allegations.
Matthew Collins provided three witness statements to the CPS, but according to the prosecution, he failed to adequately characterize China as a threat, leading the director of public prosecutions to cite this as the primary reason for dropping the case. This has fueled suspicions that the government may have withheld crucial information, either due to semantic disagreements or external pressure, though officials deny any wrongdoing.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp of the Conservatives argued that since the evidence would have been cross-examined in court, it cannot be considered secret, and urged the government to release it in the interests of transparency. Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Calum Miller echoed this, warning that failure to do so would reinforce perceptions of a cover-up and suggest the government is prioritizing relations with Beijing over national security.
The political clash is rooted in historical context: during the alleged spying period, the previous Conservative government under Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak described China as a “systemic challenge” and the “biggest state-based threat to the UK’s economic security.” In 2021-2022, a cyberattack on the Electoral Commission was attributed to Chinese actors, compromising data on 40 million people, with Sunak later calling China the “greatest state-based challenge” to national security.
Legally, the collapse of the case means that Cash and Berry cannot be retried due to double jeopardy protections under the Official Secrets Act, which prevent a second prosecution for the same offence. The Conservatives have asked the CPS if new evidence could restart the case, but the bar for such actions is exceptionally high, reflecting a legal principle that has existed for centuries.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to face sustained scrutiny on the issue during the upcoming Prime Minister’s Questions, as his government maintains it is “frustrated” by the collapse and relies on the previous administration’s assessment of China as an “epoch-defining challenge.” The controversy underscores deeper tensions in UK-China relations and raises ongoing questions about the balance between diplomatic engagement and national security priorities.