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's director of public prosecutions, in London on Aug. 7, 2024. Aaron Chown /PA Media

The head of the UK’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.

Starmer’s press secretary told reporters on Oct. 6, “The suggestion that the government withheld evidence, withdrew witnesses, or restricted the ability of witnesses to draw on particular bits of evidence are all untrue.”

On Sept. 29, the chairs of the UK Parliament’s justice committee and home affairs committee, Labour lawmaker Andy Slaughter and Conservative lawmaker Karen Bradley, respectively, wrote to Parkinson, who is the director of public prosecutions (DPP), asking for an “explanation behind the changes in the standard or availability of evidence which led to your decision” to drop the charges.

In a letter in reply on Oct. 7, Parkinson said a 2024 judgment in a case against several Bulgarians accused of spying for Russia ruled that the Official Secrets Act applied only to “a country which represents at the time of the offence, a threat to the national security of the UK.”

Russia was considered a threat to the UK’s national security—and the six Bulgarians were therefore prosecuted, convicted, and jailed in May 2025—but the CPS needed to clarify the government’s position on China.

Parkinson wrote: “Efforts to obtain that evidence were made over many months, but notwithstanding the fact that further witness statements were provided, none of these stated that at the time of the offence China represented a threat to national security, and by late August 2025 it was realised that this evidence would not be forthcoming.

“When this became apparent, the case could not proceed.”

The “National Security Strategy 2025,” a report published in June, does not refer to China as an enemy, although it warns that Beijing has increased spying and “interference in our democracy and the undermining of our economic security” in recent years.

‘Unusual Circumstance’

Parkinson, in his letter, said that given the “unusual circumstance” of government briefings about the case, he was providing the two parliamentary committee chairs with “further information to contextualise the position.”

He wrote, “I consider it important to provide assurance, particularly to Parliamentarians, that everything possible was done to bring this case to court.”

It had been alleged that between Dec. 28, 2021, and Feb. 3, 2023, Cash and Berry, “for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State, obtained, collected, recorded, published or communicated to any other person articles, notes, documents or information which were calculated to be ... useful to an enemy.”

It would be a violation of section 1(1)(c) of the Official Secrets Act of 1911.

On Oct. 8, Starmer, who is himself a former DPP, told reporters in India, where he is on a visit, “We were disappointed that the trial didn’t proceed, but the position is very clear that the trial would have had to take place on the basis of the situation as it was at the time under the previous Tory government.

“You have to prosecute people on the basis of the circumstances at the time of the alleged offense.

“So all the focus needs to be on the policy of the Tory government in place then. That’s the only place that the evidence could be focused on. And I think that provides a sort of real spotlight into some of the issues that have been swirling around.”

‘Labour Have Stonewalled’

Alicia Kearns, one of the Conservative Party lawmakers whom Cash worked for, said: “For weeks, Labour have stonewalled the British people.

“Now the CPS has taken the extraordinary step of revealing [that] our own government refused to co-operate with them, confirming serious questions about constitutional impropriety.

“The government must come clean. Who is responsible for spiking the prosecution?

“Labour has managed to undermine our law enforcement, the security services and our prosecutors whilst sending a message to China and the British people that they won’t defend our democracy.”

Cash, who had worked as a parliamentary researcher for Conservative members of Parliament, and Berry both maintain that they are innocent.

At the Sept. 15 hearing, Henry Blaxland, counsel for Cash, said his client was “entirely innocent and should never have been arrested, let alone charged.”

Reuters and PA Media contributed to this report.