China is a 'challenge' but Tories are to blame for spy trial collapse, Flooding Minister says
Emma Hardy defended the Government after accusations that Labour had interfered in the case of two men accused of spying for China
China is a 'challenge' but Labour is not to blame for the collapse of the spy trial of two British men, the Flooding Minister has told LBC.
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The UK's chief prosecutor has blamed ministers not being forthcoming with evidence for the collapse of the case against two men accused of spying for China.
But Sir Keir Starmer's Government has hit back, instead blaming the previous Tory administration for the failure.
The case against Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry was dropped on September 15, sparking criticism from Downing Street and MPs from both sides of the political aisle.
On LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Flooding Minister Emma Hardy said: "So what actually happened was back in 2023, under the previous Government, the Crown Prosecution Service decided to take forward a prosecution based on the evidence that they had and the facts that they had at the time.
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"At that time, China wasn't officially recognised as a threat either.
"Since then, there's been a case brought into the High Court and that's meant that the evidence needed to prosecute has been raised and evidence that they had from 2023 basically isn't high enough to lead to a prosecution.
"This is basically nothing to do with ministers, it's nothing to do with what this Government has done or hasn't done. This is based on 2023.
"As [Sir Keir Starmer] said: You can't retrospectively go back and change your stance on something from the past."
The current (DPP) Stephen Parkinson said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had tried “over many months” to get the evidence it needed to show China was a threat to national security, but it had not been forthcoming from Sir Keir’s administration.
Critics have pointed to Sir Keir’s attempts to build relations with the world’s second-biggest economy as a possible reason for the Government’s reluctance to label China an “enemy” or threat.
The Government has called China a “sophisticated and persistent challenge” but Sir Keir said it was the previous government’s views which counted in the court case because that was what applied when the alleged offences occurred – and the Tories had not called Xi Jinping’s country a threat, either.
Sir Keir will face demands from MPs to answer questions about the case when the Commons returns from its conference season break on Monday.