Chief Prosecutor Blames UK Government for Collapse of China Spying Trial

On Oct. 8, Conservative lawmaker Alicia Kearns said, ‘The government must come clean. Who is responsible for spiking the prosecution?’

Stephen Parkinson, the UK director of public prosecutions, in London on Aug. 7, 2024. Aaron Chown /PA Media

The head of Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Stephen Parkinson, has said it did “everything possible” to bring to trial two men accused of spying for China and has blamed the government for the case’s collapse last month.

Conservative Party lawmakers, in government from 2010 until July 2024, have accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government of deliberately collapsing the trial of Christopher Cash, 30, and Christopher Berry, 33, to avoid upsetting China.