Former cabinet secretary ‘puzzled’ by China spy case collapse amid fresh questions over Starmer’s explanation
Britain’s former national security adviser has become the latest senior civil servant to raise questions about Sir Keir Starmer’s statement on the collapse of the case against two Chinese spies.
Lord Sedwill, who held the post between 2017 and 2020 and also served as cabinet secretary, said he found the prime minister’s position “very difficult to understand”.
He said “China is of course a national security threat to the UK” directly, digitally, through espionage and through the country’s “aggressive” behavior in the South China Sea.
“To put it politely, I am truly baffled on what basis this case collapsed. We brought in the National Security Act because the Official Secrets Act was not fit for purpose.” Crisis Room podcast.
Another former cabinet secretary, Simon Case, who became Britain’s most senior civil servant when Sir Keir became prime minister, also questioned the government’s stance.
Lord Case told Telegram: “Looking back over the years, we have seen the heads of our intelligence agencies publicly describe the threat China poses to our national and economic security interests.”
The comments came after director of prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said this week that the case involving two men, a former parliamentary researcher and an academic, accused of spying for China collapsed after the government refused to brand Beijing a threat to national security.
And Sir Keir said the government’s hands were tied because the previous Conservative government refused to officially identify China as a threat.
Mr Parkinson said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had spent “months” trying to gather the evidence it needed to prosecute, but it had not come from the Labor government.
Asked about the case on Thursday, Sir Keir said: “The evidence in this case was prepared at the time and reflected the situation at the time, and that situation remained throughout.
“That’s inevitably the case because in the UK you can only judge people by the situation at the time.”
He said “no ministers were involved” in decisions about what evidence to hand over to the CPS, but refused to say whether current national security adviser Jonathan Powell was.
The collapse of the case has raised questions about whether Britain is willing to confront China as Sir Keir’s government seeks closer ties with the country.
Luke de Pulford, chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said: Independent The government’s failure to provide evidence that it recognizes China as a threat to the CPS “appears to be motivated by a desire not to upset China.”
In the latest intervention to put pressure on the Prime Minister over the collapsed case, Lord Sedwill said: “The idea that you can leak, sell or betray the secrets of this country to anyone who is not identified as an enemy and not be prosecuted one way or another, I simply do not understand that this is the case under the Official Secrets Act.
“Could you really take the entire nuclear deterrent and put it in a newspaper and wouldn’t that be a breach of the Official Secrets Act?
“So I think that comment is very difficult to understand. But it’s clear that that’s partly why we’re introducing new legislation so that there’s no ambiguity on this issue.”
