By Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday rejected accusations that Britain tried to appease China by dropping prosecutions against two men accused of spying for Beijing, saying the decision was based on legal constraints, not political reasons.
In an unexpected move, British prosecutors last month dropped charges against the men weeks before they were to go on trial. The men had been accused of passing politically sensitive information to a Chinese intelligence agent.
Christopher Cash, 30, former director of the China Research Group think tank, and Christopher Berry, 33, who worked as a researcher for a top lawmaker, had denied the allegations.
UK ACCUSED OF NOT WANTING TO BOTHER CHINA
The decision to drop the case sparked accusations from opposition lawmakers that the government had collapsed the trial because it did not want to upset Beijing, with whom it is trying to improve economic relations.
It has also led to an unusual and critical intervention from the British Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Stephen Parkinson. He said on Tuesday that prosecutors had sought for months the necessary government evidence that would show China as a threat to Britain, but had not obtained it.
Visiting India, Starmer reiterated that the government was disappointed that the prosecution had not gone ahead and said that if there was any blame, it lay with the previous Conservative government’s China policy.
“The position is very clear that the trial should have been carried out on the basis of the situation that existed at that time under the previous government,” he said.
“So whatever their position was, it was the only position that could be presented at trial… Now, that’s not a political back-and-forth, it’s a question of law.”
China’s embassy in London said in a statement: “We have emphasized from the beginning that the allegation that China instructed relevant British individuals to ‘steal British intelligence’ is a wholly fabricated and malicious slander, which we firmly reject.”
“We urge certain people in the UK to stop this kind of self-initiated political farce against China.”
WHAT IS AN ENEMY?
The men were charged under the Official Secrets Act 1911, which specifies that it is an offense to communicate any document that may be useful to “an enemy”.
In a separate case last year involving a team of Bulgarians later found guilty of spying for Russia, the Court of Appeal in London found that an enemy meant a country that “represents a current threat” to national security.
Starmer, a former DPP, says the problem was that Beijing was not classed as a threat by the Conservative government at the time the men were charged with the offences.
In March 2023, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described China as an “epoch-defining challenge” to the world order, resisting pressure from many conservatives to label Beijing a threat.
Critics said that did not justify stopping the espionage case and that the government could have said China posed a threat.
“Today we learned… that the Labor Party deliberately collapsed the trial of two men accused of spying on MPs for China because the prime minister wants to suck up to Beijing. This is sordid,” said Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.
Despite friction with China on several issues, Britain under Starmer has courted Chinese investment, seeking to maintain strong trade links with the world’s second-largest economy.
British security authorities have warned of the serious risks posed by China, especially in the cyber sphere, but also said it is important for countries to work together.
(Additional reporting by Alistair Smout and Andrew MacAskill, editing by William Maclean and Timothy Heritage)